By GAO reported that FPS testing in April 2022 found its Post Tracking System did not complete 782 of 1,487 selected tasks. GAO told the DHS CIO to decide whether to replace or correct it, and that priority recommendation was open as of GAO's last update.
In March 2025, GAO published Federal Protective Service: Actions Needed to Address Critical Guard Oversight and Information System Problems (opens in a new tab) (GAO-25-108085). The Federal Protective Service (FPS), a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) component, oversees about 13,000 contract guards at about 2,500 federal facilities. GAO examined the Post Tracking System (PTS) that FPS began deploying to guard companies in 2018.
PTS was meant to confirm that a guard is credentialed and on post, capture billable hours, and alert building tenants to shortages. In April 2022 testing, PTS did not complete 782 of 1,487 selected tasks needed to meet system requirements. GAO notes that the count includes duplicates, because a task required for several test cases is counted for each.
GAO made four recommendations. Recommendation 4, a priority recommendation, went to the DHS Chief Information Officer: determine whether to terminate and replace PTS or make corrective actions to the existing system, including a schedule for giving tenants timely communication of guard shortages.
FPS built PTS on commercial off-the-shelf software that it configured, and it expected to need only minor changes. GAO reported that FPS stopped updating the system's integrated master schedule in 2021 and is uncertain when PTS will be fully implemented. FPS reported spending about $27 million on development and implementation from fiscal 2013 through 2024.
Daily use is where the gaps show. Of 92 guard contracts, 61 require PTS, yet GAO found none of the contractors can use it as the system of record for validating guard credentials or billing. The paper-based system PTS was built to replace still holds that role. The FPS Help Desk logged about 76,000 requests for technical help in 2022 and 2023, plus over 31,000 requests for waivers so guards could log in.
PTS also does not talk to the systems around it. GAO reported that PTS is not interoperable with those systems, so FPS staff transfer data into it by hand.
Tenants feel it first. Required alerts, including a notice within 5 minutes of a check-in or check-out and a notice when a post is unstaffed during operating hours, are not working reliably. IRS told GAO it closed 30 Taxpayer Assistance Centers for a full day since fiscal 2022 for lack of contract guards. SSA reported 510 instances of closed offices.
Recommendation 4 asks the DHS CIO for a decision, and decisions need evidence. A prime pursuing FPS or DHS guard-management work, or a DHS modernization task that touches PTS, will face evaluators who have read this report. They know the requirement gap, the manual data handling, and the absence of a tenant-notice schedule.
Expect the technical volume to be read for three things. Evaluators look for an offeror that treats "fix or replace" as a scored choice, not a default to rebuild. They look for a plan that keeps posts verified and billing correct while the change happens, since the paper process is still the record. And they look for reauthorization on the schedule from the start, so the change does not leave a system without an authorization.
An independent assessment gives the agency an unconflicted map. The evidence belongs to DHS, whoever executes the work afterward. This brief names kinds of requirements, not a specific solicitation, and no open FPS solicitation is cited here.
The method below comes from Avalon's Application Modernization service, scoped to one named system and to the assessment, disposition, and roadmap phases. It describes how the work is done, at the methodology level.
Avalon does not authorize the system or assess it as an independent assessor. The authorizing official decides.
GAO has not published closure evidence for this recommendation, so these are targets, not GAO criteria.
Open as of GAO's last update, May 2026. DHS concurred with all four recommendations. For recommendation 4, GAO noted that DHS said in May 2026 it was still determining whether to correct or replace PTS. Recommendations 1 to 3, on FPS covert testing, are also open, and recommendation 3 is a priority recommendation.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| NAICS | 541512, 541511 |
| Avalon's sub role | Single-system application assessment, evidence-scored disposition, and increment roadmap with reauthorization checkpoints under the prime's modernization task |
| Small-business status | Small business; HUBZone (in progress) |
| Likely vehicles | GSA MAS (SIN 54151S IT Professional Services); GSA OASIS+; GSA Alliant 3 |
If FPS or DHS guard-management modernization is in your capture plan, Avalon teams as the sub that turns PTS requirement failures into a scored disposition, a tenant-notice schedule, and a roadmap with reauthorization built in.
