Thursday, January 21, 2016

Kompetence with a capital 'K'

"General Services Administration (GSA) officials designed a $75 million federal law enforcement facility so unsuited to what the intended occupants needed that they couldn’t use the building when it was completed, according to the Government Accountability Office."

It gets better:
GSA, already notorious for wasteful spending on conferences and employee videos, didn’t talk to the Federal Protective Service (FPS) during design phase of the more than 180,000 square foot building, the congressional watchdog agency said in a report made public Tuesday.

“As a result, FPS said that no law enforcement agencies were able to use the facility and that GSA invested resources for a facility that is not suitable for its intended tenants,” GAO said.

Officials at GSA thought the new facility was for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ district headquarters so they consulted with the FPS on perimeter security. But GAO said GSA’s failure to coordinate with FPS before constructing a nearly $75 million building is evidence of a serious lack of communications between two agencies according to GAO.
Elsewhere, the Department of Commerce is wondering what to do with its brand new aircraft carrier.

8 comments:

RebeccaH said...

Our government is rife with Klowns.

rinardman said...

Officials at GSA thought the new facility was for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...

I'm puzzled. Is it normal for $75 million projects to be done without written documentation originating from all parties involved? How can a project that probably took years from start to finish, end up being that screwed up? There were probably dozens of 'big shots' involved, who had to sign off on various phases of the project, from the two main agencies working on the project. How mind bogglingly stupid is that?

And on top of it all...probably half the money spent went to fill the union's coffers.

Deborah said...

But what matters is the right people got paid. It wouldn't be surprising if Senator Diane Feinstein's contrator husband was one of them.

Consider that perhaps it wasn't meant for the stated purpose. Refugees....

Deborah said...

The important point is that the right kind of people got paid. It wouldn't be surprising if Senator Diane Feinstein's contractor husband was one.

If there is one lesson that should have been learned, especially in the last seven years, it is that things are never as they seem. Gotta have a place to put those "refugees". It's one possibility. Just saying.

Deborah said...

OT. To Paco and all our eastern friends, I just heard about the massive storm. We send you our prayers and best wishes for your wellbeing.

Don't go out too soon to make those Hillary and Trump snow sculptures. Oh, like you didn't think of it. But don't leave Uncle Bernie out. He doesn't take much snow to make. Oh, just a thought...Al Gore.

bruce said...

Jim Geraghty has some relevant observations, starting with how the anti-big-government movement seems to have fizzled out:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/430104/many-americans-dont-seem-all-upset-about-big-government

See Australia's so small that this stuff sticks out like a sore thumb, yet still we have massive corruption of your 'teamster' union type, mostly in our building industry. But we're small enough that they can't hide. Seems to me the US is too big, or your Feds are too powerful.

Even in the EU, in effect it's powerful regional states under a weak federalism (Is Germany, I mean the EU, going to invade Poland to get them to bring back separation of powers? Yay for the Poles who kicked the lawyers in the crotch! After 15 years I've come to disagree with Mark Steyn, it's not the "demography" which is the problem, it's the "democracy": the powerlessness of lawyer-ocracy versus the majority).

http://jurist.org/paperchase/2015/12/poland-passes-controversial-law-to-weaken-top-court.php

bruce said...

Also best wishes to get through the storm all.

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