The Domestic Field Office Structure Costs Over $500 Million Annually, but the Secret Service Does Not Accurately Record Cost Data for Some Offices

		The Domestic Field Office Structure Costs Over $500 Million per Year

From fiscal years 2009 through 2014, annual domestic office costs  ranged from a low of $500 million in fiscal year 2010 to a high of $549  million in fiscal year 2012 (see fig. 5). Secret Service Did Not Accurately Record Salaries and Benefits Cost Data for Some Offices

From fiscal years 2009 through 2014, the Secret Service did not  accurately record salary and benefit data at the individual office level, but  the data are reasonably reliable at the district level and in the aggregate. On the basis of our analysis, salaries and benefits costs may not have  been accurately recorded for 21 of 73 resident offices and agencies from  fiscal years 2009 through 2014. Specifically,
13 resident offices and resident agencies likely had their salaries and  benefits costs attributed to their “parent” field offices. By implementing a  review process to ensure time and attendance codes for cost data are  correctly established and appropriately attributed to the correct office, the  Secret Service could reliably determine the cost of each of its domestic  offices to assist in assessing their cost-effectiveness. Domestic Offices Enable the Secret Service to Carry Out Its Investigative and Protective Missions, but Contributions Vary by Office

		Secret Service’s Domestic Offices Investigate Financial and Electronic Crimes and Play an Integral Role in Providing Protection and Recruiting Agents

			Electronic and Financial Crime Investigations

The Secret Service’s domestic offices predominately carry out the  agency’s investigative mission by investigating financial crimes, which  include access device fraud; financial institution fraud; identity theft;  mortgage fraud; bank fraud; and electronic crimes, including cyber fraud  and computer-based attacks on financial, banking, telecommunications,  and other critical infrastructure. 6) and $18.3 million to $28.3 million per  year in counterfeit funds removed from circulation (see fig. The Secret Service also provides training  for state and local law enforcement partners. The Secret Service Uses Data to Adjust Staffing, but Could Do More to Ensure That Its Domestic Field Office Structure Best Meets Mission Needs

		The Secret Service Uses Performance Data to Adjust Staffing, but Does Not Fully Use Available Cost, Performance, and Travel Data to Analyze Its Field Office Structure

According to senior Office of Investigations officials, the Secret Service  has an ongoing process for evaluating and adjusting staffing levels  among its domestic offices. However, the Secret Service has not  conducted an analysis of its domestic field office structure, including an  assessment of office location and size. This comparison measures how efficiently special  agents are meeting the agency’s mission needs. For example, our analysis of frequent investigative travel patterns  may indicate the need for the agency to establish a permanent Secret  Service presence at certain non-Secret Service office locations. Specifically, a  comparative analysis using cost and performance and travel data could,  among other things, help the Secret Service identify inefficiencies in its  domestic field office structure, including the cost relative to the  performance of particular offices and the location and size of offices, and  serve as a basis for allocating personnel. Recommendations for Executive Action

To help ensure that the Secret Service accurately records salaries and  benefits cost data for its domestic offices, we recommend that the  Director of the Secret Service implement a review process to ensure time  and attendance codes used for recording cost data at each domestic  office are correctly established and appropriately attributed to the correct  office. To better ensure that the Secret Service’s domestic field office structure is  enabling the Secret Service to best meet its mission needs, we  recommend that the Director of the Secret Service  conduct an analysis using cost and performance data and consider  using other data, such as travel data, to assess and inform its  domestic field office structure, and maintain a record of the analyses performed and the results. 2. How do the domestic offices contribute to accomplishing the Secret  Service’s missions? To what extent does the Secret Service use available data to ensure  that its domestic field office structure meets its mission needs, and  what data reliability challenges, if any, exist? To determine the costs of the Secret Service’s domestic field office  structure, we obtained data from the Secret Service on the costs for each  domestic field office, resident office, and resident agency by cost  category. We found that the Secret Service’s  performance metrics align with the agency’s investigative and protective  missions. Since we determined the Secret Service had not used its available data to  analyze its field office structure, we analyzed Secret Service–provided  cost, performance, and travel data to demonstrate how such analyses  could position the Secret Service to better ensure that its domestic field  office structure is responsive to changing conditions and that the agency  is able to identify specific actions that need to be taken to meet mission  needs.
Why GAO Did This Study

Commonly known for protecting the President, the Secret Service also plays a role in investigating and preventing a variety of financial and electronic crimes (e.g., counterfeiting). To execute its dual investigative and protective missions, the Secret Service operates a domestic field office structure of 115 offices in 42 districts.
GAO was asked to review the Secret Service's domestic field office structure. This report evaluates (1) the costs of the Secret Service's domestic field office structure and to what extent the data are reliable, (2) how domestic offices enable the Secret Service to accomplish its missions, and (3) the extent to which the Secret Service uses available data to ensure that its domestic field office structure meets its mission needs and what data reliability challenges, if any, exist.
GAO analyzed the Secret Service's cost, performance, and travel data for fiscal years 2009 through 2014, including a regression analysis of cost to performance. GAO also interviewed Secret Service headquarters officials; officials from 12 domestic offices selected based on size, performance and mission focus; and 15 of the agency's law enforcement partners.

What GAO Found

From fiscal years 2009 through 2014, the annual cost of the U.S. Secret Service's domestic field office structure—including 115 field offices, resident offices, and resident agencies—ranged from $500 million to $549 million, but the Secret Service did not accurately record cost data for some offices. GAO determined that although the Secret Service's cost data were reasonably reliable in the aggregate, salary and benefit costs may not have been accurately recorded in the agency's time and attendance system for 21 of 73 of the agency's smaller offices. Specifically,
thirteen resident offices and resident agencies likely had their salaries and benefits costs attributed to the field offices in their districts, and
eight had higher than expected salaries and benefits costs that may include the salaries and benefits of personnel in field offices.
By implementing a review process to ensure time and attendance charge codes for cost data are correctly established, the Secret Service could reliably determine the cost of each of its domestic offices.
The Secret Service's domestic offices predominately carry out the agency's investigative mission of various financial and electronic crimes and play an integral role in providing protection. GAO's analysis of Secret Service data from fiscal years 2009 through 2014 found that domestic offices removed at least $18 million in counterfeit funds from circulation annually, and coordinated with state and local partners to support between 5,597 and 6,386 protective visits each year. The Secret Service has developed a performance system, which aligns with its missions, to assess domestic office contributions to the agency's missions, which vary by office.
GAO also found that the Secret Service uses data to adjust staffing for the domestic offices, but the agency does not fully use all available data to analyze its domestic field office structure. For example, the Secret Service has not compared domestic field office districts' costs relative to performance or used personnel travel data to analyze whether the domestic offices are optimally located and sized to best meet the agency's mission needs. GAO's analyses of cost, performance, and travel data indicated that some field office districts were more efficient than others and personnel from four domestic offices frequently traveled to non-Secret Service office locations for investigations, potentially indicating the need for a Secret Service presence in these locations. This type of analysis could help the Secret Service determine if its field office structure is responsive to changing conditions and if an adjustment to the structure is warranted. By conducting an analysis of its domestic offices using cost and performance data, among other data as appropriate, the Secret Service could be better positioned to ensure that its domestic field office structure is meeting its mission needs.
This is a public version of a sensitive report that GAO issued in November 2015. Information that the Secret Service deemed sensitive has been removed.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends, among other things, that the Secret Service implement a review process to ensure it accurately records cost data, and conduct an analysis of its domestic field office structure using cost and performance data. The Department of Homeland Security concurred.