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INS Management: Follow-up on Selected Problems

GGD-97-132 Published: Jul 22, 1997. Publicly Released: Jul 22, 1997.
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Highlights

GAO reviewed the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) progress in addressing long-standing management problems, focusing on whether INS had: (1) developed goals and priorities to guide planning and resource allocation; (2) revised its organizational structure; (3) improved internal communications and updated its field and administrative manuals; (4) improved the process of allocating budgetary resources; and (5) improved its capability to monitor its financial status.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services To help achieve the reorganization goals, the Commissioner, INS, should provide written guidance to all INS managers on the responsibilities and authority of the EACs for Field Operations and Programs in relation to each other.
Closed – Not Implemented
INS was abolished before this recommendation was implemented.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services To help achieve the reorganization goals, the Commissioner, INS, should provide written guidance on the appropriate coordination and communication methods and channels between offices to include: (1) when and how Field Operations and Programs should coordinate and communicate with each other; (2) when and how the Office of Programs should coordinate and communicate with the regional offices and the districts and sectors; and (3) when and how the Office of Policy and Planning should coordinate and communicate with the other offices.
Closed – Not Implemented
INS was abolished before this recommendation was implemented.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services To help achieve the reorganization goals, the Commissioner, INS, should establish milestones for issuance of manuals or parts of manuals that can stand alone.
Closed – Not Implemented
INS was abolished before this recommendation could be implemented.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services To help achieve the reorganization goals, the Commissioner, INS, should incorporate into INS' current evaluation of the reorganization the issues raised in this report so that they can be addressed as INS attempts to fully achieve the goals of the reorganization.
Closed – Not Implemented
INS was abolished before this recommendation could be implemented.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services To help achieve the reorganization goals, the Commissioner, INS, should determine whether staffing levels need to be adjusted for Programs, Field Operations, and regional offices to accomplish their prescribed roles and responsibilities consistent with the respective mission and workloads for each office.
Closed – Not Implemented
INS was abolished before this recommendation was implemented.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services The Commissioner, INS, should develop a strategy and schedule for periodically evaluating the new deployment planning process to help ensure that it is compatible with INS' key planning processes and provides information needed by managers to adequately plan for resource needs and make resource decisions.
Closed – Not Implemented
INS was abolished before this recommendation could be implemented.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services The Commissioner, INS, should take steps to mitigate the risks associated with INS' planned approach for acquiring a new financial management system. Such steps should include fully implementing plans to analyze its current financial management processes and determining future financial management process needs, finalizing a comprehensive implementation plan, and fully developing and implementing a risk management plan.
Closed – Not Implemented
This recommendation is no longer applicable because INS was abolished in March 2003.

Full Report

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Topics

CommunicationFederal agency accounting systemsFederal agency reorganizationFinancial management systemsImmigrationInternal controlsRequirements definitionStrategic information systems planningSystems designReorganization