Watchdog Warns U.S. Sanctions on Iran Hurt by Poor Export Data Systems

March 4, 2010 -- Poor record-keeping and outdated information systems are hurting the U.S. government's ability to make sure that sanctions against Iran are complied with, a government watchdog said Thursday.

According to the Government Accountability Office, the Treasury Department is unable to give complete, timely information about export licenses to Congress or other federal agencies because of the problems.

"Treasury's information systems weaken the ability of the government to assess compliance with Iran sanctions," the GAO found.

An improved system would make it easier for the agency to ensure that only humanitarian goods -- not military weapons or nuclear technology -- are going to Iran.

In recent years, the Justice Department has prosecuted several people for trying to ship military aircraft parts to Iran. The Justice Department has said that from January 2007 to September 2009, there were more than 30 criminal prosecutions involving actual or attempted trans-shipments to Iran.

Part of the problems stem from Treasury's reliance on paper-based information systems that cannot be searched to identify licenses for the export of goods to Iran, the watchdog found.

For instance, an agency official told the watchdog that the system still uses manual data entry as well as non-standardized data for license applications entered before 2007.

Therefore, the congressional investigators found, the government "cannot readily determine the extent to which it has issued licenses for such exports or the extent to which goods marked for Iran are leaving U.S. ports."

When U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials last year requested complete data to help their inspectors at U.S. ports enforce the sanctions, the agency was unable to fulfill the request.

"U.S. agencies," the GAO said, "should have complete, reliable, and timely information concerning these matters to ensure the U.S. government is implementing the ban on exports to Iran."