Audit Finds Lack of Coordination in Security Spending

An independent media review of homeland security spending in Indiana found a number of duplications and an all-over lack of coordination, including the purchase of t-shirts and office supplies for a volunteer emergency program. Is the area getting the security the people pay for?

According to an article by Theodore Kim on the IndyStar.com website, area counties have purchased a “hodgepodge” of items with the $30 million in federal homeland security money they have received since 9/11. “A review of hundreds of the purchases reveals some with questionable ties to security and a few, according to the state homeland security chief, that ‘make you scratch your head,’” Kim says.

But Kim says while experts agree the metro area is better equipped to handle a disaster now, his examination of invoices found counties haven’t coordinated spending and have ended up buying “redundant or outlandish gear that might never be used.” Other purchases “have served more to support day-to-day police and fire operations than to prepare for disasters,” he says.

Kim adds, “the post-9/11 equipment frenzy reveals patchwork spending patterns that highlight a lack of coordination among jurisdictions. Local officials make decisions primarily by surveying their own needs and desires, with little regard for the equipment that neighboring jurisdictions have.”

For instance, Kim says one county purchased a radiation monitoring system for $50,000, while another bought four radiation “pagers” of a different kind for $6,000. A third chose another type of detector that fits on the sun visor of a car.