WASHINGTON — Members of Congress reacted angrily Thursday to new disclosures of trouble with a massive upgrade of the FBI computer system, accusing bureau officials of misleading them about the situation while acknowledging that millions in additional funds will be needed to fix it.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, addressing the latest software problem for the first time, said he was frustrated.
His comments came as the bureau began damage control after the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that FBI officials had concluded they might have to scrap a $170-million computer program designed to help agents share information to ward off terrorist attacks.
The software is part of a four-year, $581-million computer system overhaul that has been one of Mueller's priorities in the agency's reorganization after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the project has been mired in cost overruns and delays, and the software, Virtual Case File, is now considered outdated and inadequate.
"I am frustrated by the delays," Mueller said Thursday at a news conference in Birmingham, Ala., according to Associated Press. "I am frustrated that we do not have on every agent's desk the capability of a modern case-management system."
Mueller said the bureau was hoping to salvage the software, but other officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was a good possibility that it would have to be replaced.
The FBI will need another four months to decide on a new strategy, the officials said -- including a search for a new software partner to replace the original contractor, Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who met with bureau officials Thursday, said that he had been assured in May that the software would be completed by the end of 2004 -- a year behind schedule -- and that it would give the FBI "cutting-edge technology."
"Now, we learn that the FBI began to explore new options last August, because it feared that VCF was going to fail," said Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Congress will have to funnel more money into the project to "get the job done," he said, adding: "Bringing the FBI's information technology into the 21st century should not be rocket science."
A Republican member of the Judiciary Committee agreed with Leahy's assessment. "I hope we haven't just been pouring money down a rathole at taxpayers' expense," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa.
