The Department of Justice’s internal watchdog revealed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, overseer of a Bush administration plan to foster improved spectrum use by federal agencies, state governments and private-sector firms, granted more than 23,000 waivers over two years to allow law enforcement officials to continue operating wireless systems in a less efficient manner than mandated by NTIA in 1993.

The finding is included in a new DoJ inspector general’s report that warns plans to deploy a new nationwide wireless network for secure government communications is at risk of failing due to funding and management problems, a prospect that could hurt federal response to the next terrorist attack or natural disaster...

J.H. Snider, research director of the New America Foundation’s Wireless Future Program, said the NTIA’s handling of the matter leaves much to be desired and that he suspects the Justice Department is posturing for more congressional funding. Snider said he regards the IWN as a dinosaur. “The whole system is incredibly inefficient except by 1993 standards...”

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