The Army Corps of Engineers internal investigation into the floodgate pumps is out, and it is a blockbuster. The news is horrible.
I have written about it and linked to a copy of it at my blog, http://fixthepumps.blogspot.com.
New Orleans has been completely screwed over by a small coterie of four COE employees, all of whom are named in my blog post.
Bottom lines:
- The COE New Orleans District has lied to New Orleans and the nation for over a year. The pumps have had major problems, and not only has the public been kept completely out of the loop, the Corps has actually not implemented a critical fix necessary to assure the pumps work. They've known about that fix for over a year, and have done nothing.
- So the pumps are far from ready, and - in my estimation - probably won't be ready this hurricane season.
- Millions of taxpayer dollars have been misspent or are unaccounted for.
- Multiple cover-ups (on both the engineering and contract administration sides) have taken place.
- As a result, New Orleans remains nearly as vulnerable to flooding as it was immediately following Katrina.
The report - breathtaking in its "rip off the curtain" nature - is the complete opposite of everything you think about the Corps of Engineers. It seems that once one gets out of the New Orleans District, some Corps personnel actually know what they're doing.
Matt
Update: Senator Landrieu has called for deeper investigation, including calling on the Justice Department to look into the contracting irregularities and telling the GAO to do better.