Hi-Tech Census Costs, Accuracy in Doubt

"This is a management problem. It's an organizational problem," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in testimony this month before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Gutierrez, who oversees the Census Bureau, said officials there were unaccustomed to working with an outside vendor on such a large contract.

Census Director Steven Murdock acknowledged in an interview Tuesday that "communication problems" between census officials and Harris Corp. have resulted in "serious issues."

But, he added, "My pledge is that we are going to have a complete and accurate census."

Murdock, the former state demographer of Texas, was just confirmed as census director in December. As an appointee of President Bush, he is not guaranteed to keep his job in the next administration, when the census will take place. Gutierrez is virtually certain to be replaced by the new president.

Harris Corp. was awarded a $596 million contract in March 2006 to supply the handheld computers and the operating system that supports them. The contract has since grown to $647 million, and could balloon by as much as $2 billion, according to a report this month by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

Gutierrez and Murdock are considering several plans to scale back the use of the computers. Only one option would have door-to-door headcounters using them to enter census data collected from residents. The others call for a return to paper and pencil.

Murdock said Tuesday he wasn't ready to put a price tag on the options. Gutierrez is expected to brief Congress early next month.

Initially, the computer system was to have had several functions:

_Workers would use the handheld computers to verify every residential address in the nation, a process that is crucial to ensuring an accurate count.