Return to Article: Poor management continues to plague Homeland Security, IG reports
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44622
I guess "dan ketter" had no response, and moved on to other topics.
Anyway, the title of the article is accurate, has been since the creation of DHS, and continues to be. The question is, since this problem is so well known, why hasn't anything be done to resolve it?
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43509
Dan Ketter:
I can name a few friends of America. How about Great Britain, Australia, Japan, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France (yes, even France, under it's new President, is more friendly to the U.S. these days), Poland, Israel, Greece, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, the Philippines, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore, Colombia, Panama, etc., etc.
Do I win a prize?
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43150
CBP recently promotes a manager to an SES position in Miami who was disciplined for having multiple extramarital affairs in the office and having sex in public parks (which is a criminal offense in the State of Florida) with other employees and then the senior managers in CBP are dumbfounded when these reports come out about incompetent and inept management. Amazing.
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43133
DHS your lack of knowledge is overwhelming. If you made money under the clintons what happened in 2000 when the market dropped 40%, as usual your statements are nonsense. As to are we safer, you bet we are, has there been an attack on our shores or embassies since 9/11 noooooooooooo, similar to the time Regan went after Kadaffi. As to our so called "friends" can you name one?
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43088
This report is not a redundancy. It it important to keep document the issues, decisions, results over the passage of time. Richard Skinner with a meagre staff and budget inherited largely from the OIG of FEMA (other predecessor agencies used the creation of DHS to shed directly or indirectly all OIG expertise in the predecessor organizations--a scandal of its own).
Nonetheless, leadership does start at the top. Based on postings from former Clinton appointees if Hillary winds DHS will go through more reorganizations rather than trying to fix it. Probably the same with Obama if he wins. Bottom line 2-3 years more of chaos in a critical department.
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43081
There is an easy fix to the problem. Just for the Dept of Defense model. I came to DHS from DOD a few years ago and when DOD converted all of its IT to the standard desktop, there were many who complained about change and how it was a waste of time. Well, When you give Lockheed and Northop a Billion dollar contract to Convert the ENTIRE DOD over to a new system, then you give them 1 year to make it happen and include penalties for it not happeninng, then you get things done. Now, every DOD computer requires a CAC card and pin. It also didnt hurt when you had senior leaders (Generals) saying that you WILL conform with the changes or else. Preople really do love Strong leadership. Mission complete: The IT was converted smoothly, the contractors recieved their bonuses, and everyone is happy. Now you want ICE, to talk to FEMA, and FEMA to work with CBP, and CPB to talk to the coast guard, and the Coast Guard to help another agency, etc...
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43074
Dear DHS Nobody: Part of the problem with the US today is people are only concerned about themselves. With the Clintons back in office, the Govt will lose more employees and then maybe you'll be "a nobody at the street corner" while the rest of us will pay more taxes to give you handouts.
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43054
I totally disagree with Frank's statement that "The only organizations that were worth combining were Customs with Immigrationt...". If you had worked for either of these legacy agencies, you would have realized, as most of us already knew, that they were vastly different jobs, each requiring specialized knowledge and skills, and should never have been lumped together. That is a big reason why DHS is still struggling to find a common mission and identity after almost 5 years. Different agencies, different missions, cultures, databases, skills, etc. being thrown together haphazardly, as happened at DHS, is a receipe for failure. The one part of Frank's post I agree with was the paragraph about the U.S. freaking out after 9/11, which resulted in the unnecessary creation of DHS in a kneejerk reaction to the attacks, to show the public that something was being done. Meanwhile, in reality, DHS has a very minor role in fighting terrorism, which continues to be the exclusive domain of the FBI, the CIA, and the armed forces. Those of us in the thick of this mess have pointed this out time and time again, but nothing has been done, or seems likely to be done to fix all that is wrong with DHS.
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43053
DHS is too big, too unwieldy, and made up of too many vastly different agencies with little or nothing in common, and with diverse cultures, procedures, systems, and functions. No wonder it still has problems, almost 5 years after it's inception. If anyone had bothered to ask any of us who actually worked in this field, and had knowledge of customs, immigration, agriculture, etc. back then, we could have told them what was going to happen. However, nobody asked, and they arrogantly went forward with this harebrained scheme, which is why we are where we are today. Those who presided over the birth of this monster have long since fled DHS for the greener (and much more lucrative) pastures of the private sector, leaving career federal employees like myself saddled with this mess, which we never asked for or wanted, and which this nation didn't need, at least in this configuration. This was a group failure, with plenty of blame to be shared, from the President down to Congress to the media, which never questioned the necessity of DHS from the beginning. Nobody should be surprised by this report, which will probably also be ignored just as it's many predecessors were.
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43042
So, Ketter, is the world a safer place since we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan? That's a resounding "no." Now our friends dislike us, and our enemies hate us even more than before 9/11. In fact, the Shrub's actions have solidified our enemies and their hatred. At least my investments made money under Clinton!
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43039
Ketter, any federal employee who votes republican is like KFC chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.
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43038
I can report that my own min-survey of DHS performance is consistent with this article and the comments. In DHS, there a few if any consistent policies, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, managers make it up as they go along. The agency is incompetent at so many things, but in particular in cooperating with sister agencies where real expertise resides. They have such a "cop" mentality (where each subdivision wants to own its "turf," make all the "collars," and not be answerable to anyone else), that cooperation, information sharing, and teamwork are effectively out the window. No wonder they have failed at getting interoperable IT, the agency doesn't even beleive in it! The theory of information management in DHS is: "You give me all your information and I'll give you none of mine. If you have a problem with that, go suck a duck." Finally, we all have to realize that security is secondary. That's right, SECONDARY! First we have to do our jobs, serve our customers, run our businesses, have our lives. Security must accommodate that. In fact, our operating systems should be designed to work correctly AND be secure -- not have security layered on. It is never an excuse to stop doing business so we can have security -- that is what the terrorists want. Security may NEVER shut down the airport, security may NEVER stop traffic, security is NOT an excuse for shutting down our economy. If we take the lazy way of just shutting down stuff because we're too stupid to think of anything else, and too lazy to try, then we're just handing the country over to the terrorists. One of the principle values of our country is its resistance to tyranny. That includes the tyranny of the weak minds and lazy bureaucrats of the DHS. Let's put security back in the hands of the operating agencies who at least know what they're doing at least a little bit, and let's dissolve the ship of fools we've been factiously calling DHS. Thanks for listening.
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42986
I can't wait for Hillary reform!!! Its her and hubby that gave us 9/11, Osam and every tin foot dictator the backbone to take us on. 9/11 will be just another walk in the park with those 2
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42959
The best solution for DHS is shut it down before it does even more harm. It should never have been started to begin with. Make the rest of the governmenbt do their jobs and hold people accountable. The Republicans don't like big government??? That's a laugh.
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42951
You all have it wrong, just put the Border Patrol in charge and every thing will work. After all look at how well the keep illegal's out of the country.
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42948
Garbage in causes garbage out just like it is with the rest of the federal agencies. The positions get filled with government insiders because of good buddies who play golf together or because a quota needs to be met. Competence is secondary as is experience and productivity. People die and nobody cares. This is the reality in the federal government and has been so for a long time.
You get good managers when people are really held accountable for doing their jobs correctly. Sending a post-it note with a frowny face on it isn't good enough.
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42942
Cleaning house at DHS as some have suggested will not happen until January 20, 2009, and only if a democrat is elected president. Hillary recently said that she will roll back all the failures that this administration has implemented in day one of her administration.
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42925
I have watched DHS "Acquisition Management" since the beginning - a total farce. They fund something that is successful through other agencies, then don't recognize it as such when the personnel turn over. They contiune to gather "requirements" from responders that only confirm the requirements that they have. They have killed specific programs established to help responders vet technology and now are trying to kill the Responder Knowledge Base - which is the ONLY valid place responders can go to get key information on responder technology.
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42878
This is an easy fix, just asked all of the CBP upper management. They'll give you the same answers they have been using the past four years. Everything is great and they are the answer to all of the world's problems. That's what you get when you hire yes men. They always tell you what you want to hear! To bad that CBP doesn't hire leaders, now that would be a switch!
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42875
"A lack of available funds continues to slow DHS' efforts to consolidate data centers." A lack of funds? What a laugh.
This is one of the most wasteful and corrupt agencies within the federal government and they have a lack of funds?
This from the agency that produced a coloring book for school kids to help them understand interoperability. This from the agency that has wasted billions on radio systems for first responders that cannot do the job.
Worse decision ever made by the Congress of the United States. Instead of reporting shortfalls, there are high level employees of this agency that should be prosecuted and jailed for fraud, waste and abuse of the American taxpayers money.
There is one thing consistent about DHS, they consistently waste money and get bad reports from the IGs and others.
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42874
Based on my almost 5 years with ICE, I can tell you that this article has told us what we already know. DHS management is a big a contradictory term as "legally drunk". If I know DHS, the IG will have to look for another job for publishing what I feel is a truthful, yet long overdue report.
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42864
I think the DHS should start cleaning house.
DHS was Joe Lieberman's "administrative challenge or dare" The idea was an effort to make the government look serious about terrorism and show it's agility to go after the bad guy.
However, it was just a bad game of musical chairs, and now it has really damaged the Federal government's effectiveness, but nobody is willing to admit it and just put things back the way things were.
The only organizations that were worth combining were Customs with Immigrationt and the ATF with the FBI. The TSA didn't need to be formed as a separate agency either.
What we ended up doing is destroying the effectiveness of FEMA the Coast Guard, and some other organizations in a effort to administrative prowess.
Let's admit we freaked out after 9/11, and ran around like chickens with our heads cut off. We did things that were really stupid, wasted trillions of tax dollars, and now we have to fix what we broke.
Let's not keep wasting tax money on ineffective organizations. Before we waste another valuable dime, let's fix the organization first by cutting away at the garbage.
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42857
What's new!!! Who cares!!! DHS is doomed to failure!
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