February 17, 2012

THE SAFE HOMETOWNS GUIDE Using safer materials, reducing storage volumes, ... eliminates major community vulnerability ... (http://strategiccounsel.info/wp-content/uploads/safehometowns.pdf)


or this?

...a program beset with untrained and unqualified staff, cronyism, "an environment for fraud, waste and abuse," use of government travel cards for equipment and "unauthorized expenses" and talked of a "catastrophic failure" and a leadership that didn't want to hear bad news.

Chemical plants: still unsafe?
Source: The Washington Post, February 16, 2012
Author: Al Kamen

The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, designed to enhance security against terrorist attack, began about five years ago. The goal was straightforward - figure out which facilities were the most vulnerable and dangerous and then monitor industry efforts to secure those sites.

Since then, CFATS (that's "Cee-FATS") has received some 4,200 site security plans from businesses - who've spent tons of their own money on plans and improvements - to obtain a government seal of approval for their efforts.

So far, some $480 million later, not one has been approved. Zero. And heads may roll.

A blistering internal investigation in November, recently released to a House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee, found a program beset with untrained and unqualified staff, cronyism, "an environment for fraud, waste and abuse," use of government travel cards for equipment and "unauthorized expenses" and talked of a "catastrophic failure" and a leadership that didn't want to hear bad news.

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