IG Calls FMCSA Data 'Poor,' Questions Computer Funding

July 22, 2004 1:00 AM, EDT

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he Department of Transportation’s inspector general said that information the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration uses to track trucking companies was so “poor” that he questioned the agency’s request for funds to upgrade its computer system.

IG Kenneth Mead made the remarks in a recent memo to DOT Secretary Norman Mineta that was on the IG Web site.

He said FMCSA’s data was not reliable enough to “make informed decisions about continued funding for MCMIS [Motor Carrier Management Information Systems] operations and enhancements to the system.”

The IG report said that FMCSA’s computers, which it uses to track 600,000 motor carriers, were outdated, that the data the computers process were incomplete, contradictory or out of date and FMCSA had not addressed the data-quality issues in its justification for a $60.5 million spending request to upgrade its computers.

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