Feds question millions in Colorado spending on homeland security
By GEORGE MERRITT
Denver Post
January 3, 2008
DENVER—Colorado officials failed to tightly monitor how they spent more than $156 million in federal Homeland Security grants from 2003 to 2006, throwing the state's emergency preparedness into question, a scathing federal audit found.
The report by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general found "a significant leadership and oversight void" that made Colorado's homeland security plans "ineffective." It recommended the federal government closely monitor state efforts to fix those plans.
Local security officials failed to meet on a routine basis, didn't review federal grant applications and didn't formally evaluate grant applications from state contractors, according to the audit released Thursday.
At least $7.8 million in federal grants were directly misspent, including $3.9 million for a radio system that the state transferred to a nonprofit agency that helps manage state communications, and more than $3 million in transfers among grant programs without prior written approvals, the audit found.
The office of Inspector General Richard L. Skinner found "no evidence" that state officials factored security risks into their evaluation of projects funded by federal grants. Local agencies, it said, also spent federal money without coordinating with the state or among themselves.
Colorado's Senior Advisory Committee, which is supposed to oversee federal assistance for the state's homeland security program, demonstrated "a significant leadership and oversight void" during the period covered by the audit, the report concluded.
Mike Beasley, who was head of the state Department of Local Affairs under then-Gov. Bill Owens, said Thursday he had asked for a state audit of the program in late 2004 and executed every recommendation when it was completed in 2005. The Department of Local Affairs administers the federal grants.
But Beasley said that working with the Department of Homeland Security was "the most frustrating experience I have ever had being around government." He said federal procedures changed frequently, putting pressure on local officials trying to implement security plans.
"Personally, I'd rather have a root canal than go back and have anything to do with the Department of Homeland Security," he said. "There isn't a state in the nation that isn't experiencing the same situation that we are in Colorado. ... I think it is unfair for them, four years later, to come in and restate the rules."
Gov. Bill Ritter said he has been reviewing "well-documented deficiencies" of spending of federal security dollars since before he took office a year ago.
"I'm confident in the progress we are making to restructure the organization, tighten up the oversight and administration of grant funds and improve training," he said in a statement.
Ritter's homeland security coordinator, National Guard Maj. Gen. Mason Whitney, said Coloradans are safe in spite of the findings.
"I don't think there is cause for concern," he said. "But I do want to make sure that everybody understands there needs to be a culture of preparedness and a culture of awareness."
Whitney said he plans to do a "gap analysis" to determine the resources Colorado needs to appease the federal government. But he said the report is not likely to have any bearing on preparations for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.
"We just need to make sure that we work hard to make sure that we are fully prepared for that convention, and that is what we are doing right now," he said.
The audit cited turnover at the administrative level, noting that from 2004 to 2006, three people rotated through the Department of Local Affairs' executive director position.
Because of the lack of leadership, "critical statewide goals and objectives were not completed," including a requirement that nine groupings of hazard agencies across the state submit a terrorism supplement to their emergency operations plans.
