To achieve its mission, TFI components often work with the following:    Other U.S. government agencies. Private sector. Foreign governments and international organizations. Officials from TFI and its interagency partners cited strong  collaboration with TFI in several areas, but differ about the quality of  collaboration regarding U.S. participation in some international forums. TFI Performs Five Functions to Fulfill Its Mission

According to TFI, it undertakes five functions to safeguard the financial  system from illicit use and to combat rogue nations, terrorist supporters,  WMD proliferators, money launderers, drug kingpins, and other national  security threats. Analyzing Financial Intelligence

TFI officials cite OIA’s analysis of financial intelligence as a critical part of  TFI’s efforts because it underlies TFI’s ability to utilize many of its tools. They said that the  creation of OIA was critical to TFI’s ability to effectively identify these  illicit financial networks. TFI officials also stated that interagency collaboration runs  smoothly and that they were unaware of any significant concerns  regarding the quality of interagency collaboration. TFI Has Not Clearly Aligned Its Resources with Priorities or Performed Comprehensive Workforce Planning

While TFI has conducted strategic planning activities at different levels  within the organization, TFI as a unit has not fully adopted certain key  practices. OFAC officials characterized  this situation as a resource burden. In particular, they cited the need to conduct an overall  workforce analysis and succession planning. Without the benefit of comprehensive strategic workforce planning to  assist in identifying solutions, it is unclear whether TFI will be able to  effectively address persistent workforce challenges. Objectivity. Seven TFI measures do not sufficiently cover  core program activities. TFI Is Working to Replace Its Performance Measures, but Some Concerns Remain

Treasury officials acknowledge the limits of TFI’s current performance  measurement and have been working to enhance its measures, by  replacing them with a single new TFI-wide measure. In addition, TFI and its components have  taken some steps toward more effective management of TFI as an  organization. For instance, TFI and some components have developed  strategic plans and have performed workforce planning activities. As a result, additional opportunities  for improvement exist. Without clear, consistent objectives and an understanding of  how resources are aligned with them, it may be unclear to Congress, TFI’s  interagency partners, or even TFI staff what TFI’s priorities are and  whether TFI has sufficient resources to address them. Without a set  of effective performance measures, it is difficult to judge how well TFI is  achieving its mission. Recommendations for Executive Action

To help strengthen Treasury’s ability to achieve its strategic goal of  preventing terrorism and promoting the nation’s security through  strengthened international financial systems, we recommend that the  Secretary of the Treasury direct the Under Secretary for Terrorism and  Financial Intelligence to take the following four actions:  1.  develop and implement, in consultation with interagency partners  participating in international forums related to anti-money laundering  and counterterrorist financing issues, (a) compatible policies,  procedures, and other means to operate across agency boundaries and  (b) a mechanism for monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on  interagency collaboration;  2.  develop and implement policies and procedures for aligning resources  with TFI’s strategic priorities;  3.  develop and implement a TFI-wide process, including written  guidance, that addresses the key principles of strategic workforce  planning; and  4.  ensure that TFI’s performance measures exhibit the key attributes of  successful performance measures. Justice and State declined to provide  comments. For example, we reviewed  all of Treasury’s performance and accountability reports and FinCEN’s  annual reports since TFI was formed. We then interviewed officials from  Treasury and its key interagency partners (the Departments of State and  Justice) to understand TFI’s processes for interagency collaboration.
Why GAO Did This Study

In 2004, Congress combined preexisting and newly created units to form the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) within the Department of the Treasury (Treasury). TFI's mission is to integrate intelligence and enforcement functions to (1) safeguard the financial system against illicit use and (2) combat rogue nations, terrorist facilitators, and other national security threats. In the 5 years since TFI's creation, questioned have been raised about how TFI is managed and allocates its resources. As a result, GAO was asked to analyze how TFI (1) implements its functions, particularly in collaboration with interagency partners, (2) conducts strategic resource planning, and (3) measures its performance. To conduct this analysis, GAO reviewed Treasury and TFI planning documents, performance reports, and workforce data, and interviewed officials from Treasury and its key interagency partners.

What GAO Found

TFI undertakes five functions, each implemented by a TFI component, in order to achieve its mission. TFI officials cite the analysis of financial intelligence as a critical part of TFI's efforts because it underlies TFI's ability to utilize many of its tools. They said that the creation of OIA was critical to Treasury's ability to effectively identify illicit financial networks. To achieve its mission, TFI's five components often work with each other, other U.S. government agencies, the private sector, or foreign governments. Officials from TFI and its interagency partners cited strong collaboration in many areas, such as effective information sharing between FinCEN and the Justice Department (Justice). Officials differed, however, about the quality of interagency collaboration involving international forums. Treasury officials who led this collaboration stated that it runs smoothly and that they were unaware of any significant concerns, while Justice and State officials reported declining collaboration and unclear mechanisms to enhance or sustain it. While TFI and some of its components have conducted selected strategic resource planning activities, TFI as a unit has not fully adopted key practices that enhance such efforts. For example, TFI and its components have produced multiple strategic planning documents in recent years, but the objectives in some of these documents are not clearly aligned with resources needed to achieve them. As a result, it may be unclear whether TFI has sufficient resources to address its objectives. Also, though TFI has undertaken some workforce planning activities, it lacks a process for performing comprehensive strategic workforce planning. Thus, it is unclear whether TFI is able to effectively address persistent workforce challenges. Also, TFI has not yet developed appropriate performance measures, changing their number and substance each year. Though TFI's current measures fully address many attributes of effective performance measures, they do not cover all TFI core program activities. TFI officials acknowledge the need for improvement and have worked since 2007 to develop one overall performance measure to assess TFI. Yet questions remain about when TFI will implement its new measure and whether it will effectively gauge TFI's performance.