Summary: Members of Congress asked GAO to analyze (1) the implications of any differences between the levels of cargo and passenger inspectors at certain airports and seaports around the United States and the levels determined by the U.S. Customs Service to be appropriate for these ports and (2) any differences among the cargo and passenger processing workload-to-inspector ratios at the selected ports and the rationales for any significant differences in these ratios. GAO could not perform the requested analyses because Customs has not assessed the level of appropriate staffing at its ports and because of concerns about the quality of Customs' workload data. In addition, Customs considered factors other than workload, such as budget constraints and legislative limitations, in determining its needs for inspectors and allocating them to ports. According to Customs officials, these factors must be considered in their decisionmaking in order to maximize the effectiveness of deployed resources. On the basis of statements from senior Customs officials and their responses to earlier GAO recommendations, GAO believes that Customs recognizes that staffing imbalances may exist at certain ports and that it needs to improve how it assesses the need for and allocates inspectors to ports of entry.
