NOAA – A Failed Agency, Part 2
NOAA. What would I ask the commerce department to look for?
I would ask to see the total budget plus the line-item expenditures for each division. They have purchased hundreds of thousands of whale and seal brochures warning people and whale-watch boats to stay away. They have been sitting in the building for years and have never been distributed. They have a $150,000-dollar Marine Mammal Trailer and Van outfitted with air conditioning and heat and it never gets used. I haven’t seen it used – ever! They have a 25hp 4-cycle Evinrude outboard which is sitting in that trailer and has never been used.
I would ask for an audit by line item for all of the Divisions. The waste is phenomenal. They have kayaks up there which have never been used. They have a team of people to rescue stranded turtles and whales caught in nets and all kinds of equipment to help save them, and I never see it get used or any of the people from NOAA come to the rescue. It’s always the Coast Guard and the New England Aquarium that comes to the rescue. The whole place plays “pretend” and doesn’t do shit.
They bought a $7000 dollar tent last year for people to have informal, “voluntary” social gatherings and nobody ever came.
The entire place needs to be exposed. Line item, by line item with a justification of why they purchased it.
There must be $100,000 dollars of undistributed pamphlets sitting in the storage rooms. I know. I have pictures of them.
Waste is what I am talking about. There is more waste than you can imagine. The electric bill is $30,000 a month alone. They had all 4 floors on for just 3 girls and one guard. Totally insane.
Sam Parisi, Gloucester, Mass.
