Justice IG casts further doubts on FBI's Sentinel

[The Straight Story]

Justice IG casts further doubts on FBI's Sentinel


The FBI knowingly accepted faulty software from Lockheed Martin as part of the bureau's effort to create a web-based investigative case management system, finds a Justice Department inspector general report released March 31.

Auditors wrote they now doubt the effort, called Sentinel, can be completed in a timely and cost-effective manner. As of March 15, the bureau was working without cost or schedule completion estimates, earlier assessments having fallen apart. FBI officials acknowledged to auditors that the project is on track to bust its $451-million price tag and likely cannot be completed until 2011, at least 11 weeks overdue.

FBI Director Robert Mueller announced March 17 that work on Sentinel's second of four phases needed additional time and that the bureau would postpone starting most of the third and all of the fourth phases.

Matters started going downhill when the FBI conditionally accepted, in December 2009, software from Lockheed Martin as part of Sentinel's second phase of development. That functionality was meant to provide three electronic documents, support their workflow, and transfer all administrative cases from the Automated Case File, the current system based on an old ADABAS database.

Read more: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/justice-ig-casts-further-doubts-fbis-sentinel/2010-03-31#ixzz0jxFUZEny