State does a poor job monitoring spending
Confusion after a major disaster is understandable. But six years after the fact there can be no excuses. According to The Associated Press, three reports have concluded that Pennsylvania has done such a poor job of overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal homeland security grants that it is hard to determine whether the spending has improved the state’s disaster-response capabilities.
The reports said record-keeping has been so inadequate that state emergency officials, who must approve local requests for the money, cannot say whether equipment that has been purchased is still in use or where it is.
More than $400 million in federal money has been committed to Pennsylvania since Sept. 11, 2001. About half has been spent, the bulk of it on equipment.
In the wake of 9-11, haste did make waste. But that was understandable. Federal, state and local officials were scrambling around trying to respond to an event of unimaginable proportions. They were under enormous pressure to do something, anything.
But six years after the attacks, state officials are still trying to get their act together. Sorry, but there is no excuse for being that late and that clueless.