Weak FEMA response symptomatic of Homeland Security woes, audit finds

[question everything]

War on Terror

Weak FEMA response symptomatic of Homeland Security woes, audit finds

By Lara Jakes Jordan
ASSOCIATED PRESS

2:18 p.m. December 28, 2005

WASHINGTON – Weaknesses in FEMA's response system during Hurricane Katrina were just one symptom of major management challenges at the Homeland Security Department, an internal report issued Wednesday concludes.

The report by the department's inspector general also questions Homeland Security's ability to properly oversee billions of dollars worth of contracts it awards annually.

(snip)

Investigators found that several key FEMA programs – distributing aid to disaster victims, emergency response information systems, modernizing flood maps and managing contracts and grants – remain inadequate.

(snip)

Department officials responded to the audit with an 11-page point-by-point analysis, acknowledging and explaining shortcomings in some areas and defending actions in others.



Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/terror/20051228-1418-homelandsecurity-management.html

[bemildred]

1. It's a symptom of a corrupt, decadent, and incompetent government.

And it ain't just FEMA or DHS, it goes all the way up and both ways to the side.

[badgervan]

3. All Part of the Repub Plan

All of the failures at the federal level of government are part of the repub plan to "drown the government" ( remember tax hater Grover Norquist? ). None of these failures - FEMA in New Orleans, 37 million+ poor now, illegal immigration, massive cost overuns everywhere you look, billions missing in Iraq, our educational system failing, pensions, health insurance, etc., etc. - none of these huge failures disturb mr. bush and mr. rove in the least.
I posit that all of these government failures are part of the rovian master plan to kill all federal entitlements and programs that help those in need, or help all of us, and to move all of these programs to the private sector - where everything will be profit driven ( and much more expensive ).
They have promised to drown the government, do not forget this. If we want to keep our government strong at the federal level, if we want to return it to pre-bush effectiveness, then we must elect democrats in 2006 and 2008.

[bemildred]

5. Norquist is a moron, a political half-wit, a tool.

The problem goes much deeper than Norquist and his ilk, annoying though they can be.

[donkeyotay]

6. Spot on - the GOP plan for corporate prosperity is working just fine

Sure, it looks like a disaster if you suspect that FEMA's failure is representative of DHS's capacity to protect us, but that's not their objective anyway. The reason for being in government is to do a heckuvajob cleaning out the wealth of the nation, the wealth of working class and middle class people. They are cleaning out the bank accounts, moving it offshore, and we, our children and our grandchildren will be left in servitude to pay off the bill. When they're done, they'll make the Robber Barons look like Girl Scouts.
:hi:

[mom cat]

2. The buck stops with Bush-Cheney

[UpInArms]

4. Audit cites Homeland Security management issues (fraud, waste, abuse)

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-12-29T132257Z_01_FLE923733_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-HOMELAND.xml

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly three years after it was created, the sprawling U.S. Department of Homeland Security still faces management problems that were partly accountable for the flawed federal response to Hurricane Katrina, according to an internal audit released on Wednesday.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which devastated Gulf Coast states, exposed weaknesses in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's information systems and its management of contracts and grants, the audit by the DHS inspector general's office found.

The report said Katrina, in late August and Hurricane Rita, a month later, compounded FEMA's already overburdened resources and infrastructure.

"When one considers that FEMA's programs are largely administered through grants and contracts, the circumstances created by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita provides an unprecedented opportunity for fraud, waste, and abuse," it said.

...more...

[cosmicdot]

7. didn't see this coming

:sarcasm:

of course, I suspect the waste, etc., began while Poindexter was at Syntek with its DARPA
contracts developing Big Brother technology ... TIA/IAO = Syntek ... anyone who visited Syntek's site early on will know that "Homeland Security" was specifically called out on its home page; and, that after 911, there was a link on the White House website directly to Syntek ... to tie in the whole "homeland security" thing ... giving Poindexter a WH job was a transitioning of Syntek's work and work-in-process into the DHS ... at least IMHO ... Wayback Machine/Internet Archives of early on Syntek webpages seem to have been altered or not navigable ... now, they say "Helping you chart the course of innovation".


http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=14154

http://www.publicintegrity.org/docs/publici/pi_2003_02.pdf

It's a crime that Poindexter got out of the felony charges. We'd better off without this nazi on the street.



of course, there are other curious quasi-governmental organizations that make one wonder what's it that they do do, i.e., Sandia (part of Lockheed Martin with a .gov suffix); MITRE which goes with .org suffix) ... Syntek was a .org, too ...

[cosmicdot]

8. dang, too late to edit ... it was ANSER I was thinking of ...

which WH linked to ... not Syntek ...

sorry about that

http://www.anser.org/
http://www.homelandsecurity.org/

a subsidiary of the Rand Research and Development Corporation

wayback machine http://www.archive.org/ search for anser.org

"We're sorry, access to http://www.anser.org/ has been blocked by the site owner via robots.txt."


The ANSER Homeland Security Institute was established April 2001
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=14699&CFID=6075640&CFTOKEN=59355230

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ANSER_Institute_for_Homeland_Security