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Return to Article: Life-and-Death Decisions

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  Taxpayer,

  Please go back and research your opinion. It is not the Army COE that is the problem, but our elected reps in Congress that tell them exactly where to spend the money, like build the roads to the casinos, but wait till next year to fix the dams, or levees, or what ever else needs fixing. The problem with this philosophy is that next year never comes. It is not the COE that is the problem -- it is the good ole boys (and girls) in Congress taking care of their friends with our money.

  Ted Posted September 13, 2006 7:34 AM
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  Given the absence of foul play ... Why do you take this as given? This probably is the reason in both cases!

  Find out who provided the concrete for the Big Dig. Bet it was the family in Boston! Not Tony Soprano but close to it! Also, look at the Army Corps of Engineers and you will find a group that provides funds for local political purposes to continue the re-election of politicians from county level to Congress. The New Orleans disaster was a result of the Army Corps of Engineers and not the weather! The failures during the Mississippi floods of the 1990s also were the fault of the Army Corps of Engineers. It is time that the press stop saying the disaster is the fault of the weather and start blaming the Army Corps so that we can get rid of future problems that the Army Corps is developing as we speak! The Corps rebuilt the New Orleans levees to the pre-Katrina levels. Here we go again. Now the walls around New Orleans will fall again even without trumps. The disaster is the Army Corps of Engineers not the weather.

  All predictions are for the weather to get worse than it is currently (global warming that the administration is doing nothing significant about to preserve the dollar value of goods and services to rich people). Why would the Army Corps and the politicians rebuild a proven failure? Corruption is located throughout the government from local to federal levels. We need to reduce the size of all government in the United States and start making individuals responsible for themselves again. That is why we are seeing most of our production capability flow out of the country -- government has protected us so much we cannot do anything anymore! And now people want government to protect us by inspecting the total flow of goods into our ports and examine our shoes when we fly. The best government is that which governs least! Let's get back to it!

  Taxpayer Posted September 8, 2006 7:49 AM
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  When there is a catastrophic failure like the Big Dig collapse or the levee failure in New Orleans, there are three likely areas of institutional breakdown. First, the design process itself could be flawed. That suggests that design reviews were inadequate. This is the least likely. Second, the construction process may have been corrupt, allowing inadequate or inferior materials to be used. This is always a possibility, though there is a strong ethic in most agencies and construction companies that protects against it. Finally, it may be that inherent weaknesses in either design or construction practices could not be communicated up the chain of command to decision-makers. This in fact is the most likely cause of the problem. It is the almost inevitable result of the "don't nobody bring me no bad news" school of management which infects so many large public agencies these days.

  Bob Schilling Posted September 6, 2006 1:21 PM
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  Management decisions are crucial. Usually there is not enough money in the project to fund a fully manned construction oversight team. However millions are spent on engineering and project management activities before construction. The government relies too much on the contractors policing themselves. A quality construction oversight team is a necessity for such projects. Ask the project engineer for the Boston tunnel how much of a field staff he had. Don't count the secretaries.

  GovExec.com reader Posted September 6, 2006 12:48 PM
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  Compliments to Government Executive and National Journal for keeping this critical issue in focus. Many agree that the safety of the American public is currently being endangered by two problems: outsourcing roles that should be performed by government, and poor monitoring and oversight of contractors. When safety is involved, construction and technical work performed by contractors must be vigorously inspected with no shadow of coercion or conflict attached to the inspectors.

  Much work on construction and infrastructure is contracted out to experts -- fine. However, a new and dangerous trend is the contracting out of oversight and safety inspections. I've read that the FAA has contracted out safety and maintenance inspections on work performed by aircraft contractors. Many think that the role of deciding what is safe and what is unsafe cannot be contracted out. Public safety is a "buck" that should not be passed. Private industry can better provide independent audits of how government performs this role.

  Further, the current state of government monitoring of contractors is abysmal. Poor performance by a contractor at one federal agency currently has almost no bearing on their ability to obtain contracts at other federal agencies. It is currently possible for a private firm or individual employed by private firms to repeat non-performance at many consecutive federal agencies without an alarm alerting those agencies of poor past performance. This can become a real problem if that poor performance washes up on a contract involving public safety. Contracting is here to stay -- it is simply too profitable to ever disappear. Enhanced tracking of contractor performance and more proper delineation of the government/contractor roles will save lives.

  Everything I read about improvements to the contracting process is focused on simply accelerating the rate at which taxpayers dollars are distributed to private firms. The emphasis must be on effectiveness and efficiency of work performed.

  Joseph Posted September 6, 2006 8:53 AM