Army Corps takes steps to fix shortcomings exposed by Katrina

[The Straight Story]

Army Corps takes steps to fix shortcomings exposed by Katrina

By Katherine McIntire Peters
[e-mail]
The Army's Chief of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, on Thursday announced that the Corps would take a dozen specific actions to transform the way it sets priorities and does business.

The actions constitute the agency's "institutional response" to failures brought to light following Hurricane Katrina, he said. The plan stems from the Corps-commissioned Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force and other reviews of the agency's performance both before and after the hurricane made landfall.

Among the most significant changes will be a more rigorous focus on risk analysis in both project design and construction, and a more comprehensive effort to communicate that risk to the public and other stakeholders.

"Risk has always been an element of our planning, but it clearly needs increased emphasis in how we do our work," Strock said. "Today the major driving points for recommending projects are economic justification, engineering feasibility and environmental acceptability."

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=34880&dcn=todaysnews

[skids]

1. And with not a week to spare.