A federal program aimed at securing potentially dangerous chemicals is now in jeopardy after being beset by a series of deep-seated problems, including wasteful spending and a largely unqualified workforce that lacks “professionalism,” according to a scathing internal Department of Homeland Security report obtained exclusively by Fox News.

In 2007, Congress established the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program, which directs DHS to collect and review information from U.S. chemical facilities to determine whether they present a security risk. It is overseen by the Infrastructure Security Compliance Division — or ISCD.

As the Congressional Budget Office describes it, CFATS’ mandate is to ensure that facilities deemed a high threat develop a security plan, and in turn, DHS “conducts inspections to validate the adequacy of” and compliance with the plan.

But that’s not how it is happening. The report, which suggests that administration officials are possibly being misled about the program’s success, says the office has yet to conduct a “compliance inspection” and it only recently began approving security plans.

The report identifies several human resources problems, including inspectors who see their jobs within the context of prior law enforcement careers, which the report says has hindered effectiveness, and office employees who are unduly bound by union shops.

The report says several of the challenges identified “pose a measurable risk to the program.” A top-ranking DHS official characterized that conclusion as “very true.”

“The question here is whether or not we can move this program to a level of completion and sustainment,” Rand Beers, undersecretary for DHS’ National Protection and Programs Directorate, told Fox News in an interview Tuesday. Beers has overseen the program since 2009. “As long as I’m here, I’ll certainly strive to do that.”

One Democratic Hill staffer called the report’s findings “disturbing” and “disappointing.”

The report, initiated at Beers’ behest over the summer, is accompanied by a detailed “action plan” and shows a clear effort by DHS, which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars for the four-year-old program, to correct issues that have been tolerated — if not condoned — since the previous administration.

But a growing concern named in the report is “the prospect that DHS leadership and those within the administration are under the impression that the program is further along than it actually is.”

The internal report cites several “serious staff-related challenges,” including “numerous” people not qualified to do the work; a training department with staff lacking its own professional training or educational qualifications; and managers who lack managerial knowledge or experience but in some cases were hired based upon “an established relationship with the selecting official.”

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