Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security
Winner of the Bancroft Prize Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Book of the Year A Publishers Weekly Book of the Year “The main thrust of Horowitz’s account is to make us understand Katrina—the civic calamity, not the storm itself—as a consequence of decades of bad decisions by humans, not an unanticipated caprice of nature.” —Nicholas Lemann, New Yorker Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans on August 29, 2005, but the decisions that caused the disaster can be traced back nearly a century. After the city weathered a major hurricane in 1915, its Sewerage and Water Board believed that developers could safely build housing near the Mississippi, on lowlands that relied on significant government subsidies to stay dry. When the flawed levee system failed, these were the neighborhoods that were devastated. The flood line tells one important story about Katrina, but it is not the only story that matters. Andy Horowitz investigates the response to the flood, when policymakers made it easier for white New Orleanians to return home than for African Americans. He explores how the profits and liabilities created by Louisiana’s oil industry have been distributed unevenly, prompting dreams of abundance and a catastrophic land loss crisis that continues today. “Masterful...Disasters have the power to reveal who we are, what we value, what we’re willing—and unwilling—to protect.” —New York Review of Books “If you want to read only one book to better understand why people in positions of power in government and industry do so little to address climate change, even with wildfires burning and ice caps melting and extinctions becoming a daily occurrence, this is the one.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
Kept secret from the American public, after the inept response of public emergency agencies to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, military contractor companies began quietly offering private emergency services. At a price only the wealthy can afford, these contracts function as a world-wide 9-1-1, offering personal rapid-response extraction from anywhere at any time in any situation. The Sunset Mist luxury liner has been overrun by terrorists off the coast of Florida. On board is billionaire Danforth Percy Sinclair, who makes one last desperate phone call before his capture to activate his Katrina contract. On shore, at Redfire Advanced Security Solutions corporate headquarters, Rod North and a small team of ex-Special Forces operatives are dispatched to rescue Mr. Sinclair. Also converging on the scene are a federal negotiator and Navy support vessel. Unknown to them all, there are secrets and deceptions already taking place on The Sunset Mist. Rod North and his team don't know it, but they are charging headlong into a situation far more dangerous and complex than they could possibly imagine. They'll be lucky to extract Sinclair, luckier still to escape alive!
The second edition of Government Contracting: Promises and Perils picks up where the first edition’s mission left off: exposing fraud, incompetence, waste, and abuse (FIWA) and analyzing corruption, mismanagement, and ineptitude that defile government contracting. The first edition thoroughly outlined procurement throughout the contracting cycle including initial planning, contractor selection, contract administration, contract closeout, and auditing. This significantly revised new edition provides additional much-needed guidance on contracting documents, management tools, and processes for addressing negative influences on government contracting, including an improved approach to evaluating proposals. Specific guidance for avoiding FIWA is provided for government officials and employees, government agencies, and government contractors, and practical solutions to problems faced by individuals and organizations involved in government contracting are intended for both practitioner and pedagogical applications. The "Government Procurement Corruption Wall of Shame" that was introduced in the first edition to illustrate contracting perils such as conflicts of interest, duplicity, favoritism, incompetence, kickbacks, and protests is continued in the second edition, and cases illustrating the existence of FIWA in government contracting have been thoroughly updated. Contracting documents and contract management tools are provided on a website designed to accompany the book. Written at the graduate level and specifically intended for state, local, federal, and international government procurement activities, this textbook is required reading for public procurement, contract management, business, and public administrations courses.
One-third of the DoD FY 2006 spending on goods and services was for subcontracts. Concerns have been raised among DoD auditors and Congress about the potential for excessive pass-through charges by contractors that add little or no value when work is subcontracted. To better understand this risk, this report assesses the extent to which DoD may be vulnerable to these charges, and examines: (1) DoD¿s approach to assessing the risk of excessive pass-through charges when work is subcontracted; (2) the strategies that selected private sector companies use to minimize risks of excessive pass-through charges when purchasing goods and services; and (3) DoD¿s interim rule to prevent excessive pass-through charges. Illustrations.
Originally an important but relatively obscure plurilateral instrument, the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) is now becoming a pillar of the WTO system as a result of important developments since the Uruguay Round. This collection examines the issues and challenges that this raises for the GPA, as well as future prospects for addressing government procurement at a multilateral level. Coverage includes issues relating to pending accessions to the GPA, particularly those of developing countries with a large state sector such as China; the revised (provisionally agreed) GPA text of 2006, including provisions on electronic procurement and Special and Differential Treatment for Developing Countries; and procurement provisions in regional trade agreements and their significance for the multilateral system. Attention is also given to emerging issues, especially those concerning environmental, social and SME policy; competition law; and the implications of the recent economic crisis.