WASHINGTON A congressional audit has questioned the effectiveness of a critical federal program designed to assure that rogue motor carriers that been ordered out of service keep their vehicles off the road.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office spent 11 months and what appears to be hundreds of man hours investigating the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrations Performance and Registration Information Systems Management grant program.

PRISM, as its commonly known, was set up more than a decade ago to, among other things, give states the ability to deny, suspend or revoke vehicle registrations of bus and truck operators that have been ordered off the road for safety violations.

From an enforcement and safety standpoint such a system is vital because of the propensity of rogue truckers and bus operators to be ordered out of service one day and to reappear under a different name and USDOT number a few days later.

The system attempts to keep tabs on these so-called chameleon carriers by tracking the ID numbers of the vehicles owned and operated by the slimeball companies.

So, when the rogue outfits attempt to re-register their vehicles, or they are stopped for roadside or destination inspections, departments of motor vehicles or enforcement officers can check the PRISM database and quickly determine if there is an out-of-service order involving the bus or truck being registered or inspected.

Because the motor carrier industry in the U.S. is so vast, and there are so few safety enforcement officials and resources of state vehicle registration departments are so limited, the PRISM system was developed to give officials a leg up.

But as the GAO audit found, the programs effectiveness is difficult to measure, and appears to be accomplishing its goals only on a limited basis. PRISM, it seems, is like many FMCSA initiatives: under funded, under utilized and underwhelming.

The problems and challenges -- identified by the GAO audit - to making the program more effective are numerous and in some cases complex.

For example, the program currently is voluntary. As a result, only half the states have implemented PRISM to the point where they can automatically identify out-of-service operators and then deny, suspend or revoke their vehicle registrations.

Consequently, PRISMs success is undercut because the other 25 states arent fully utilizing the system and these states include those that have the highest number of registered commercial vehicles.

According to some experts, there is anecdotal evidence that rogue operators game the system by registering in those states, plus the District of Columbia, that arent using PRISM. There is a belief that some of these states have become refuges for out-service carriers.

The audit said there would be benefits to making the system mandatory for states. For example, it could lead to speedier national implementation. However, there also are draw backs. It could cost zillions of dollars for some states to adapt their information systems to make PRISM work.

Implementation, generally, has been a critical issue slowing the adoption of PRISM. It costs money for states to get on board, and PRISM is funded at around $5 million annually - not much for a potentially 50-state program.

On average, it takes states more than three years to implement PRISM. In some states it has taken seven years and frequently legislation must be written and passed to allow PRISM, plus contractors hired to help with the programs technical components. Like most things involving the federal government, nothing is easy.

Meanwhile, GAO said the FMCSA should measure the programs effectiveness after enough states have implemented the program to the point where they can keep out-of-service carriers off the road.

Should FMCSA follow that recommendation, it likely will mean years and years will roll by before the program achieves any sort of meaningful effectiveness and hundreds of rogue motor carriers will continue operating unchallenged.

That is probably not what members of Congress had in mind when they asked for the audit.

A little perspective: The FMCSA/USDOT has 716,000 interstate carriers registered and 80 percent of these carriers operate one to six vehicles.

In fiscal 2008, the agency ordered 6,707 carriers out of service. Those out-of-service orders largely resulted from compliance reviews on just over 2.5 percent of carriers, or 18,400, in fiscal 08.