Ex-official tells of Homeland Security failures

[Moloch]

WASHINGTON — The government agency responsible for protecting the nation against terrorist attack is a dysfunctional, poorly managed bureaucracy that has failed to plug serious holes in the nation's safety net, the Department of Homeland Security's former internal watchdog warns.

A former government official says little has been done to safeguard forms of mass transit.

Clark Kent Ervin, who served as the department's inspector general until earlier this month, said in an interview last week that airport security isn't tight enough and that little has been done to safeguard other forms of mass transit. Ervin said ports remain vulnerable to terrorists trying to smuggle weapons into the country. He added that immigration and customs investigators are hampered in their efforts to track down illegal immigrants because they often lack gas money for their cars.

"There are still all these security gaps in the country that have yet to be closed," Ervin said. Meanwhile, he added, Homeland Security officials have wasted millions of dollars because of "chaotic and disorganized" accounting practices, lavish spending on social occasions and employee bonuses and a failure to require competitive bidding for some projects.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. what is Homeland Security giving bonuses for?

and why do they have to throw parties? Couldn't this money have been used to do things like check interstate trucking? Containers coming in by ship? Any lists of these bonuses and parites, I wonder? I'd like to ask my Conman about them.

OT: Clark Kent Ervin. Wonder if he becomes Superman in his spare time?

[Moloch]

2. Can people ask for budgets via FOIA?

Or will that cause their computer to crash?

Here's another story on the subject from October.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/14/national/main649305.shtml

Very disturbing.

[MSgt213]

6. You think homeland security isn't being used as a cover to get more

government money into hands of private contractors that can't do the job for things we don't really need and don't protect us?

[salin]

3. lavish parties and non competitve bidding

what a surprise...

is there a link to the original story? Thanks.

[acmavm]

4. Wonder who's getting the contracts? I'm sure there's a nice republican

bush supporting scandal in here somewhere.

[dbt]

5. What if "Homeland Sekurity" is just another bu$hco scam?

Everything the Regime has done so far has been done with the aim of making a few cronies obscenely rich(er). Why would HS be any different?

:freak:
dbt

[indepat]

14. Absolutely everlasting thing this Regime will have ever done IMHO

[FreeStateDemocrat]

7. The Homeland Benevolence Fund

is a 24 billion-dollar repuke pork barrel that is another pretext to sack the US Treasury to payoff loyal supporters.

[orpupilofnature57]

8. FORMER,operative word, even now with the car ready,Colin Powell..

is (seeing emperor's clothing) to Matt,elected bush's golf buddy, the power of shrub.

[Paleocon]

9. Quote "dysfunctional, poorly managed bureaucracy"

Sounds like they're on their way... Why should they be any different from any other government agency?

War on terror,
War on drugs,
War on poverty,
War on illiteracy,
War on this,
War on that,

Government gets bigger and bigger and we as citizens get less and less.

[EFerrari]

10. Kleptocracy on the march n/t

[0007]

11. Homeland Security is nothing but a protection racket run by

organized crime that lives in the White House.

[Kolesar]

12. Was HS Joe Lieberman's stupidest idea ever? ... eom

[Divernan]

13. Bonuses largely going to (inept) political appointees

Bush added several layers of political appointees/bureaucracy to fed. agencies to pay back his fatcat campaign donors, who all had career-challenged relatives/close friends. Then, in order to prevent their whining that federal jobs didn't pay nearly as well as the high level private sector jobs (which they never held and didn't qualify for, either), Bush set up this "performance bonus" program, As a smokescreen, it is supposed to apply to ALL fed. employees, but practically speaking, the political hacks are getting many thousands each, while the career fed employees, i.e., the worker bees might get a couple of hundred dollars.

DHS as siphoned funds off of the fed. agencies below it - such that travel funds are cut - which comes in very handy to keep those pesky federal inspectors away from big bidness operations, doncha see? I mean what's more important - lavish parties, or inspecting meat packers, or enforcing OSHA regs, or getting FEMA teams out to meet with state and local officials about emergency preparedness?