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Washington, D.C. — A range of severe problems—from woefully inadequate staffing and insufficient training to low morale that drives high attrition rates—is seriously impacting the ability of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to carry out its critical border security mission.

That was the gist of a lengthy report, released today, by the independent Government Accountability Office (GAO). CBP is a major component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and was formed by combining employees from three agencies—the U.S. Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service and inspectors of the Agriculture Department.

The report primarily examined work performed by the 17,600 CBP Officers who staff ports of entry at land borders, seaports and airports, as opposed to Border Patrol agents who patrol the border areas between ports of entry. The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) represents some 21,000 CBP employees, including all of the frontline CBP Officers.

The GAO report to the leaders of congressional committees with homeland security responsibilities sharply underscores arguments about CBP that the union has been making since the 2003 formation of DHS: CBP is understaffed and poorly managed; officers are overworked and inadequately trained; and CBP Officers are not treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve.

“Based on the comments of employees and supervisors alike and the observations and analysis by GAO investigators,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley, “it is clear that CBP needs thousands more front-line employees not just to do the job the nation has a right to expect, but to provide enough manpower to staff ports of entry while critically-necessary training is provided.”

“According to CBP senior management,” the report said, “they are unable to staff ports of entry to sufficiently accommodate the workload. Lack of sufficient staff contributes to officers working double-shifts, sometimes resulting in fatigue that can affect decisions.”

It added that staffing shortages force ports of entry to rely on overtime to accomplish their inspection responsibilities, with officers “called upon to work 16-hour shifts, spending long stints in the primary passenger processing lanes in order to keep lane opens, in part to minimize traveler wait times.”

President Kelley noted that while CBP is in line for an additional 200 or so employees in this fiscal year, the agency’s own staffing model estimates that “CBP may need up to several thousand more officers and agricultural specialists to operate its ports of entry,” according to the report.

Retention is increasingly a problem at CBP, Kelley noted. During 2007, the report stated, an average of 52 CBP Officers left the agency every two weeks, up from 34 officers in 2005. Morale at DHS is among the lowest at federal agencies.

The report offers critical comments about CBP’s much-derided ‘One Face at the Border’ initiative, combining the work of inspectors from the three legacy agencies into a single new position.

“Officers and supervisors at ports of entry we visited told us that officers are placed in situations for which they have not been trained,” GAO said.

NTEU repeatedly has called on CBP to drop the ‘One Face’ program, given the serious lack of inspectional expertise that has resulted from its implementation.

“CBP thought that by putting officers from three distinct and critical specialties into the same uniform and having them do each other’s work, they could get by with fewer officers,” said Kelley. “The end result has been a dilution of critical expertise and a demoralized workforce. It’s time DHS publicly recognizes that ‘One Face at the Border’ is a failure.”

On that subject, GAO added pointedly: “CBP managers in headquarters recognize that insufficient training can lead to a higher risk of failed inspections. In a presentation that was given to all field office directors, CBP headquarters officials stated that untrained officers increase the risk that terrorists, inadmissible travelers and illicit goods could enter the country.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.