Homeland Security: Survey of DHS Agriculture Specialists (GAO-12-884SP, September 2012), an E-supplement to GAO-12-885
Highlights
This is an E-supplement to GAO-12-885. This e-supplement is a companion to our report on the Agriculture Quarantine Inspection (AQI) program, Homeland Security: Agriculture Inspection Program Has Made Some Improvements but Management Challenges Persist (GAO-12-885). The purpose of this e-supplement is to provide information from a web-based survey of agriculture specialists and supervisors, including agriculture canine handlers, employed by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as part of the AQI program, which was previously managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and has been jointly managed by USDA and CBP since February 2003.
Supplemental Material
Background
This e-supplement is a companion to our report on the Agriculture Quarantine Inspection (AQI) program, Homeland Security: Agriculture Inspection Program Has Made Some Improvements but Management Challenges Persist (GAO-12-885). The purpose of this e-supplement is to provide information from a web-based survey of agriculture specialists and supervisors, including agriculture canine handlers, employed by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as part of the AQI program, which was previously managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and has been jointly managed by USDA and CBP since February 2003.
This survey is similar to one we conducted in 2006. The survey was administered to individuals engaged in agricultural inspection duties as of October 2011 and still engaged in this duty as of February 2012. We received an un-weighted response rate of 74 percent. A copy of the survey is reproduced in this e-supplement, along with summary statistics and the number of valid responses. We excluded narrative responses related to closed-ended questions. See the full report (GAO-12-885) for a more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology.
For key questions, this e-supplement presents the overall weighted survey percentages for agricultural specialists, canine handlers, and supervisory agricultural specialists individually and combined. For those key questions, this e-supplement also presents the weighted survey percentages for respondents who had formerly worked for USDA (known as Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) officers) and those hired after 2003. In this e-supplement, those employees hired prior to 2003 are also referred to as "former PPQ officers."
We conducted our work from August 2011 to September 2012 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
Contents
| Page Name | Questionnaire | Results |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | View | View |
| Part 1 - Demographic Information | View | View |
| Part 2 - Information From Former USDA PPQ Officers | View | View |
| Part 3 - Your Work at CBP | View | View |
| Part 3 - Your Work at CBP (Continued) | View | View |
| Part 4 - Questions for Canine Handlers | View | View |
| Part 5 - Your Views and Opinions About Working at CBP | View | View |
| Part 6 - Your Comments | View | View |
| Completing Your GAO Survey | View | View |
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