Treasury further behind in ID card distribution than reported

Treasury Department officials significantly overestimated the percentage of employees and contractors who have been issued new credentials, causing the agency to drop from above to below average in adoption of a governmentwide mandate for standard identification.

The Internal Revenue Service inspector general reported on Thursday that as of October 2008, 32 percent of 127,922 Treasury employees and contractors had been issued new high-tech badges that comply with the Bush administration's 2004 Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, which requires a common identification for federal employees and contractors. That's in contrast to the 73 percent reported to -- and published by -- the Office of Management and Budget. As of Jan. 30, 2009, 46 percent of Treasury employees and contractors had received badges.

The IRS was designated as the lead bureau for ensuring Treasury complies with the directive.

"The inaccurate reporting was partially due to the program management office defining 'issued' as 'sponsored, adjudicated and enrolled,' " the IG said. "[But] many more employees and contractors are sponsored, adjudicated and enrolled than are actually issued badges."

Employees are supposed to use the cards, which include biometrics and other high-tech features, to access federal buildings and log on to government computers.

Treasury was one of 12 agencies OMB named in October as having met or nearly met targets for card issuance. In reality, "The number of badges issued each month is decreasing by a significant amount," the IG said. The number of badges issued to Treasury employees and contractors dropped 55 percent from October to November 2008, 38 percent in December 2008, and 28 percent in January 2009, according to the report.

The HSPD-12 program manager attributed slow progress to the IRS filing season.

The IG also noted that the HSPD-12 manager excluded "a significant number" of contractors and seasonal employees from the total population of individuals who are required to have badges, because of the delay caused by the fact their identification information has to be entered manually into the General Services Administration's shared services provider's computer system.

"The real issue is accountability," said James Lewis, director of the technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "If you worked in a company and misrepresented your figures by 40 percent, there would be a consequence. We need the same here."

According to the latest self-reported figures, which were updated on March 31, the Education, Housing and Urban Development, and State departments are among the larger agencies that have handed out new cards to all employees and contractors. The Energy, Interior and Labor departments reported card issuance to more than 90 percent of employees and contractors. The Veteran Affairs Department reported the lowest rate of distribution, having issued cards to only 3.4 percent of employees and contractors. The Homeland Security Department does not have its figures available online.

"It varies from agency to agency, [but] a breakdown we did in the middle of this year showed that [the largest federal departments] are on average a little more than halfway there," Lewis said. The original deadline for issuing the cards was October 2008.