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Daily Archives: February 12, 2015

Final Assessment: What We Have Learned From Our Inspections of Incinerators and Use of Burn Pits in Afghanistan

This report presents SIGAR’s final assessment of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) use of incinerators and open-air burn pits to dispose of solid waste in Afghanistan. The facts and concluding observations contained in this report are based on inspections conducted by SIGAR between October 2012and June 2014 at Camp Leatherneck, Forward Operating Base Salerno, Forward Operating Base Sharana, and Shindand Airbase. By addressing at a systemic level the common problems identified in this report, DOD could improve management of solid waste disposal in future contingency operations. This report highlights the ways in which incinerator operations in Afghanistan were not conducted in a manner that resulted in the most efficient use of U.S. taxpayer funds. Unfortunately, in many instances DOD officials did not take sufficient steps to ensure the proper management of contracts for the construction of the incinerators to address the problems identified during our inspections of particular incinerator facilities. Given the fact that DOD has been aware for many years of the significant health risks associated with open-air burn pits, it is indefensible that U.S. military personnel, who are already at risk of serious injury and death when fighting the enemy, were put at further risk from the potentially harmful emissions from the use of open-air burn pits. Because SIGAR’s prior inspection reports on incinerators contained numerous recommendations to improve the planning and management of incinerator facilities, this report contains no new recommendations. We provided a draft of this report to U.S. Central Command, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and U.S. Forces–Afghanistan (USFOR-A) for review and comment. USACE and USFOR-A provided us with written comments, which are reproduced in appendices IV and V, respectively. Technical comments were incorporated into this report, as appropriate.”

Unprecedented 21st century drought risk in the American Southwest and Central Plains

Benjamin I. Cook, Toby R. Ault, Jason E. Smerdon. Science Advances 01 Feb 2015: Vol. 1 no. 1 e1400082. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1400082.  “In the Southwest and Central Plains of Western North America, climate change is expected to increase drought severity in the coming decades. These regions nevertheless experienced extended Medieval-era droughts that were more persistent than… Continue Reading

Understanding the Federal Government’s “IT Insecurity” Crisis

February 5, 2015 Report From the International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers – “U.S. taxpayers have paid $59 billion for data protection since Fiscal Year 2010, including $10.3 billion in the most recent year under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). This week, the Obama Administration proposed a $14 billion cybersecurity budget for… Continue Reading

Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Improving U.S. Educational Outcomes

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth – report by Robert Lynch: “This study addresses a key challenge confronting the United States—how to promote both widely shared and faster economic growth. It does so by analyzing and describing the effects of raising educational achievement, especially for those not at the top of the economic ladder.The results of… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – African Growth, Environmental Satellites, Financial Audit, Small Business Contracting

African Growth and Opportunity Act: Eligibility Process and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, GAO-15-300: Published: Feb 12, 2015. Publicly Released: Feb 12, 2015. Environmental Satellites: Improvements Needed in NOAA’s Mitigation Strategies as It Prepares for Potential Satellite Coverage Gaps, GAO-15-386T: Published: Feb 12, 2015. Publicly Released: Feb 12, 2015. Financial Audit: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation… Continue Reading