WASHINGTON — A controversial I.D. proposal for port workers and truckers should undergo further testing to fix problems in key components, says the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The Transportation Security Administration, which has been developing a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC), should do more to ensure the program’s systems work more effectively and strengthen oversight practices before awarding the TWIC implementation contract, says the internal government watchdog.

TWIC would require a biometric I.D. credential which would ensure port workers and truck drivers that access the facilities
do not pose a terrorist threat. In the future, the program could be expanded to other safety sensitive facilities in the U.S.

Workers who access U.S. ports in the U.S. may have to
wait a little longer before getting TWIC-approved

TSA completed TWIC program testing in June 2005 and is moving forward with implementation in the maritime sector by the end of this year.

The GAO examined problems and key challenges found in the last year of testing and determined TWIC needs more work.

Essentially, GAO discovered the Department of Homeland Security and industry stakeholders face three major challenges in addressing problems, including:

Enrolling workers and issuing TWIC cards in a timely manner to a significantly larger population of workers than was done during testing; and ensuring that the TWIC technology, such as biometric card readers, works
effectively in the maritime sector.

“TSA has obtained limited information on the use of biometric readers in the maritime sector because most facilities that tested the TWIC program did not use these types of readers,” the GAO report states.

Finally, balancing the added security components of the TWIC program with the potential impact that the program could have on the flow of maritime
commerce, was not fully examined.

TSA has acknowledged that there are challenges to implementing the
TWIC program, but so far has no plans for additional testing.

“Rapidly moving forward with implementation of the TWIC program without
developing and testing solutions to identified problems to ensure that they work effectively could lead to further problems, increased costs, and program delays without achieving the program’s intended goals,” says GAO.

Furthermore, according to the report, TSA admits there are additional problems with contractor oversight because the agency did not have sufficient personnel to monitor contractor performance.

Trucking groups in both Canada an the U.S. insist that the government not require truckers who have already undergone similar security checks to be forced into getting TWIC-approved. The Canadian Trucking Alliance and its U.S. counterpart, want the FAST card used as a substitute.