Revolving door at the Corps

The former Corps of Engineers Chief of Engineers has landed a job with a company contracted by the Corps to help fix the levees in New Orleans:

Washington, DC - To guide its massive repair of the New Orleans flood control system, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is turning to a firm headed by its former commander who played a prominent role in perpetuating the neglect and misplaced priorities that contributed to the disastrous post-Katrina levee failures, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Under a three-year open-ended contract announced last week, the Corps will award hundreds of millions of dollars to a company staffed by the same managers who were in positions of authority when critical levee work was short-shifted.

The company, HNTB Federal Services Corporation, is led by retired General Robert B. Flowers, who was the Corps' Chief of Engineers from 2000 until 2004, a period in which the Corps pursued questionable navigation projects in New Orleans at the expense of flood and hurricane protection. In addition, Flowers was the commander of Corps' Mississippi Valley Division from 1995 to 1997 which was directly responsible for construction, operation, inspection, and maintenance of New Orleans flood and hurricane protection projects.

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"This is like hiring Michael Brown to reform FEMA," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that Flowers was also the Corps officer who personally approved the controversial series of no-bid contracts between the Pentagon and a subsidiary of Halliburton for a range of reconstruction work in Iraq. "In the Corps, those who screw up are guaranteed a tidy fortune as private consultants advising how to remedy their past mistakes."

I guess if they are going to outsource the work they can at least outsource it to people who are, uh, familiar with the "challenges".