Despite warnings of lax security and loose management of IT investments, the U.S. government spent at least $2.9 billion on IT related to domestic security in fiscal 2002 and will spend at least that much in fiscal 2003, according to a report released yesterday by the General Accounting Office.

The report was requested by the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is part of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, to identify and analyze IT spending related to domestic security.

The GAO found that $1.2 billion of the spending went to organizations being folded into the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In the current fiscal year, that figure will rise to $1.3 billion, the GAO said.

In reaching its conclusions, the GAO reviewed the budgets for 24 departments and agencies, including the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Justice, Treasury and Energy.

The agencies spending the most IT dollars on domestic security in 2003 will be the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, part of the U.S. Department of Justice; the Transportation Security Agency, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation; and the U.S. Customs Service, part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the GAO said.

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