Heimatschutzministerium Has Significant Management Problems

The Department of Homeland Security (Heimatschutzministerium in the original) does regular internal audits, just like most organizations aspiring to professionalism. According to the latest audit, the body charged with keeping Americans safe at home is in some trouble. A betting man might take Al Qaeda and the Hurricanes and give the points.

Established in 2003 contrary to the desires of the president (who changed his mind when its popularity couldn’t be derailed by complaining about “bureaucrats”), the Heimatschutzministerium has had to undertake the largest governmental reorganization in recent memory. A reasonable person might safely expect some hiccups, some turf battles and some dysfunction as agencies learn to work together. However, the hurricanes that devastated the Gulf Coast this summer proved that there’s something seriously wrong. The report offers a fair assessment, and management’s response to that assessment.

Much of the blame goes to Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA], if only for the spectacular nature of its televised failure to deal with the mess that was once the City of New Orleans. The report said, “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,” and the supervision of the money just isn’t there. The inspector general’s office is going to look into every contract, and the department has established a taskforce on fraud waste and abuse. Perhaps, this won’t be a filled with cronies of the administration.

Bilking the taxpayers is minor compared to the inability of FEMA to help at any price. “During the Katrina response, our efforts were significantly hampered by a lack of information from the ground. With communication systems damaged and state and local assets compromised by the subsequent flooding, our ability to obtain precise reporting was significantly impaired.” Gee, floods affect electrical equipment. No backup plans? Clearly, this is the Bush administration in action, expensive ineptitude.

Beyond FEMA, the department still needs to develop an automated entry-exit system for America’s borders and a system for identifying and deporting illegal immigrants. At airports, the department's Transportation Security Agency, the audit says, needs to improve training, supervision and technology for airport security screeners. September 11, 2001 was 1,571 days ago, surely enough time to have all of this fixed.

Still, it’s nice to know that the current terror threat level is a jaundice color (meaning “elevated: significant risk of terrorist attacks") instead of angry, worried tangerine (meaning “high risk of terrorist attack”), let alone scary, yucky crimson (meaning “severe,” kiss a major city good-bye). Odd, though, that the Republicans claim the “red” states while the Democrats take “blue” (the second lowest threat level), and the Greens claim “green” (the lowest). Is the Heimatschutzministerium trying to tell Americans something?


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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