WASHINGTON -The FBI’s effort to move from paper to electronic files took another hit Wednesday when Justice Department auditors issued their latest, and perhaps most critical, report to date on the long troubled Sentinel project.

“Sentinel is approximately $100 million over budget and 2 years behind schedule,” the report from Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine said, and still lacks common features of personal computers and ordinary word processing, such as search functions, spell-checking and automatic document saves.

Worse, the IG said, the FBI had spent almost 90 percent of the $451 million currently budgeted for the entire program, “but it will have delivered only two of the program’s four phases to its agents and analysts.”

The program could cost another $350 million and take six years to complete, the auditors said.

“We found that while Sentinel has delivered some improvements to the FBI’s case management system, it has not delivered much of what it originally intended,” the report said.

“FBI agents and analysts do not have the planned expanded capabilities to search the FBI’s case files.

“Nor can they use Sentinel to manage evidence, as originally intended.”The Washington Post

WASHINGTON – The FBI’s effort to move from paper to electronic files took another hit Wednesday when Justice Department auditors issued their latest, and perhaps most critical, report to date on the long troubled Sentinel project.

“Sentinel is approximately $100 million over budget and 2 years behind schedule,” the report from Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine said, and still lacks common features of personal computers and ordinary word processing, such as search functions, spell-checking and automatic document saves.

Worse, the IG said, the FBI had spent almost 90 percent of the $451 million currently budgeted for the entire program, “but it will have delivered only two of the program’s four phases to its agents and analysts.”

The program could cost another $350 million and take six years to complete, the auditors said.

“We found that while Sentinel has delivered some improvements to the FBI’s case management system, it has not delivered much of what it originally intended,” the report said. “FBI agents and analysts do not have the planned expanded capabilities to search the FBI’s case files. Nor can they use Sentinel to manage evidence, as originally intended.”