http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113357762116313178-d8t1EtVGKdN0tsFNRNNcqn9AbtE_20061203.html By ANNE MARIE SQUEO Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL December 3, 2005 FBI officials, nervous about making another costly mistake overhauling the agency's antiquated computer system, have postponed awarding the contract for the high-profile job until next year. Two of the nation's biggest defense contractors -- Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. -- are competing for the information-technology system, dubbed Sentinel. Federal Bureau of Investigation officials were scheduled to announce the winner last month. But they have postponed the selection until at least early next year, according to two government officials. The delay is in part because of a desire to avoid the mistakes that plagued Sentinel's disastrous predecessor, the Virtual Case File system. FBI Director Robert Mueller pulled the plug on that project in April after four years and about $170 million. "At this time, we are currently in the middle of source selection, so it would be inappropriate to provide a specific release date," said FBI spokesman Richard Kolko. FBI officials have been seeking additional information for weeks from the two companies and haven't yet made a recommendation to senior FBI officials. Much is riding on the project's success. Congress and other overseers pilloried the FBI for its reliance on paper records, forms and file cabinets. The FBI only last year completed the rollout of the Internet to its agents and analysts. And even though the bureau installed a computerized case-management system in the mid-1990s, it relied largely on aging, less-agile technology to do so. And it did little to eliminate the department's notorious number of paper forms -- currently numbering more than 1,000. Having been hauled before Congress numerous times to explain the bureau's technology problems, Mr. Mueller has staked his legacy on installing a system that will streamline internal processes, speed investigations and improve information-sharing with other agencies. The Sept. 11 commission criticized the FBI's lack of information sharing that could have helped prevent the terrorist attacks. "There is no agency that needs the best information-sharing mechanisms more than the FBI," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in a press briefing on Friday. "Bob [Mueller's] focused on it. I'm focused on it. The president is focused on it and so are members of Congress." Lockheed, of Bethesda, Md., and Los Angeles-based Northrop are the only two bidders for the project, which likely would total in the hundreds of millions of dollars. No target price has been released. Industry and government officials have expressed surprise that no other bidders emerged but said the intense scrutiny of the project may have been a disincentive. Science Applications International Corp., which handled the earlier project, was criticized publicly when Mr. Mueller canceled it. Also, the window of opportunity to bid was fairly narrow -- the request for proposals went out in August with responses due in October. Further, bidders had to put together a working prototype. FBI Chief Information Officer Zalmai Azmi said some potential vendors decided to team up rather than compete on their own. The Lockheed team, for example, includes Accenture Ltd., Computer Sciences Corp., CACI International Inc. and others. Northrop hasn't disclosed its teammates. Industry officials acknowledge the job is enormous. "This is a big complicated system" because of the variety of issues the FBI investigates -- such as terrorism, white-collar crime, kidnappings and insurance fraud, said one industry executive who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing competition. In white-collar investigations, for example, often "bank records all have to be pulled into the case-file system, and some of these cases have 13 million financial transactions," this person said. With a wide variety of investigations, the FBI must be able to collect and store information in several different systems -- top secret, secret, classified, and sensitive but unclassified -- and any given document might contain information that falls into all four categories. Thus, the new system needs strict security controls to prevent information from falling into the wrong hands, such as in the case of rogue FBI agent Robert Hanssen, sentenced to life in prison for stealing and selling secrets to the Russians over two decades. Lockheed and Northrop are banking on their expertise integrating sophisticated weapons systems for the military to give them an edge on the FBI's problems. And both companies also have experience working with the Justice Department and the FBI on other projects. Write to Anne Marie Squeo at annemarie.squeo @ wsj.com _________________________________________ Earn your Master's degree in Information Security ONLINE www.msia.norwich.edu/csi Study IA management practices and the latest infosec issues. Norwich University is an NSA Center of Excellence.
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