Thank you Cain Burdeau of the Associated Press.
A long awaited report putting the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) under “the ethics microscope” might nearly have gone unnoticed if not for you.
The Boehlert Report was released at the height of Hurricane Ike on a Friday afternoon at 5pm, likely the worst moment possible for disseminating this important document. But Cain Burdeau waited until the hurricane had passed and then gave the report the attention it deserved.
The AP reporter wrote on how a Task Force headed by retired Congressman Sherwood Boehlert R-NY had released a report saying ASCE should draw up an ethics policy to eliminate questions of possible conflicts of interest.
Specifically, The Boehlert Report chided the ASCE for accepting compensation directly from the organization whose work they were investigating, and for exerting way too much control over the investigation teams.
All the things that The Boehlert Report criticized were clearly and abundantly evident in the corps-sponsored levee failure investigation, the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force.
The money, the medals, the muzzling.
The AP article closes by saying the critics have been vindicated and the issue is still far from over, because an internal committee is currently examining allegations that the Corps of Engineers hid their mistakes during the levee investigation and intimidated anyone who tried to intervene.
Since the findings are directly relevant to our health and safety, Levees.org believes the results should be made public!
If you agree, sign the petition.
Thank you,
Sandy Rosenthal
Founder, Levees.org
Click here for the AP story.
Click here for pdf of The Boehlert Report.
Thank you for citing Cain Burdeau regarding his dogged coverage of the Corps of Engineers Malfeasance. He has been right on top of not only every twist and turn in this complicated yarn that the Corps continues to spin here in Nola, but also across the country with the Midwest Floods.
We always try to hang his articles ’cause they always tend to deliver the goods.
Thanks for hangin’wit it,
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder