Combating Illicit Financing: Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Could Manage More Effectively to Achieve Its Mission

With regard to our recommendation that TFI develop and implement policies and procedures to operate across agency boundaries and develop a mechanism for monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on interagency collaboration, the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence indicated in comments on a draft of this report that his counterparts in other agencies have never expressed concerns about process or substance to him regarding TFI?s collaboration. Nonetheless, Treasury stated that it would redouble its efforts to coordinate with other agencies, but did not identify specific steps it planned to take. As discussed in our report, we recommended that such steps include developing clear policies for conducting and monitoring the results of interagency collaboration. Despite our repeated efforts to contact TFI officials from April through July 2013, they did not respond with any information or documentation on how they implemented this recommendation.

In response to our recommendation to develop and implement policies and procedures for aligning resources with TFI's strategic priorities, Treasury indicated in its comments on a draft of this report that TFI was working to improve its processes in this area. While Treasury stated that its use of the annual budget process has worked well to match resources to strategic goals, we had concluded that the annual budget process does not necessarily reflect TFI's strategic priorities, in part because it reflects priorities for only a given year and not longer-term priorities. Despite our repeated efforts to contact TFI officials from April through July 2013, they did not respond with any information or documentation on how they implemented this recommendation.

In relation to our recommendation to develop and implement a TFI-wide process to address the key principles of strategic workforce planning, Treasury commented on the draft of this report that it was working with Johns Hopkins University's Capstone Consulting to develop a workforce planning model for Treasury. As a part of this effort, TFI planned to develop and disseminate written guidance establishing a process to align resources with TFI and Treasury strategic goals within 12 months of the issuance of this September 2009 report. Despite our repeated efforts to contact TFI officials from April through July 2013, they did not respond with any information or documentation on how they implemented this recommendation.