AUDIT SAYS DEA PERFORMANCE IMMEASURABLE BECAUSE IT LACKS GOALS

WASHINGTON - The Drug Enforcement Administration has failed to create
measurable performance goals for its programs, making their effectiveness
hard to determine, a government audit says.

The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress,
recommends in its report that the DEA work closer with the Justice
Department to help set up goals - with specific dates or targets - to
accompany the agency's objectives.

Auditors also suggested that the DEA work with the White House's Office of
National Drug Control Policy, because both try to reduce drug abuse,
drug-related crime and drug trafficking.

The GAO noted in its report, which was released last week, that the DEA
uses data on arrests and drug seizures it has made to help demonstrate the
agency's effectiveness in carrying out enforcement programs.

However, the report said: "The use of arrest data as a performance
indicator can be misleading without information on the significance of the
arrests and the extent to which they lead to prosecutions and convictions."

Using arrest data as a performance target also "can lead to undesirable
consequences when law enforcement agencies place undue emphasis on
increasing the numbers of arrests at the expense of developing quality
investigations," according to the report.

The DEA responded by saying it has set up preliminary targets, which it
plans to submit with its next budget.