Inability to restore IT systems was found in most instances IT operations within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are generally unprepared to recover from a major disaster, a government audit has found. The report, published Wednesday by the DHS Office of Inspector General, found that nearly 80 percent of the department’s IT facilities lack fully operational data recovery sites.“The inability to restore DHS’ critical IT systems following a disaster could have negative effects on the performance of mission essential functions,” the audit states.Of the 19 sites examined by auditors, 15 were unable to perform complete backups of their data to a second recovery site. In the remaining four sites, the audit found problems that could “adversely impact recovery of critical IT systems.” Because of these failures, the U.S. could see a disruption in airport screening or delays in processing government disaster assistance grants following a disaster, the audit found. It also warned that the IT problems also had the potential to hold-up the flow of goods in and out of the county.The report calls for more funding for disaster recovery within the DHS and recommends that the department place increased emphasis on disaster recovery planning. There are “deficiencies” in 25 of the 31 disaster recovery planning documents examined during the audit, the report states.The office of the DHS’ chief information officer agrees with the audit’s recommendations and the department’s 22 agencies are working to improve disaster preparedness, said Larry Orluskie, a spokesman for the DHS. But with the wide variety of information systems now linked under the DHS umbrella, this will take some time, he said. “You have a conglomeration that was rapidly put together,” he said. “Everything’s in place now to move… to where we need to be.” Orluskie could not say when the DHS expected to meet the audit’s recommendations, but he predicted that a new consolidated DHS data center, expected to go online by the end of September at the Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi, would mitigate the situation. “Once that’s up and running, it’s going to address many of the issues in this report,” Orluskie said.The DHS was created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. It is chartered with protecting the U.S. from terrorism and reducing the effects of man-made or natural disasters. Its departments include the Coast Guard, Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency Security