Department of Homeland Security - Essay Example

Department of Homeland Security Contents: Introduction. About the Department of Homeland Security. Failures of DHS and Suggestions for better DHS. Conclusion. References. Introduction: Time has given enough experiences to man to cope up with problems that he has to face from all possible threats and risks. In this age where man’s life is thought to be the most comfortable, he has risks from none other than humans. Apart from this, the natural calamities, accidents etc. provide a greater amount of threat that could cause a lot of damage to life and property. A single terrorist act can shake the base of any well established country. An untimely famine or a drought, an epidemic, a natural disaster, accident etc. all takes the face of mighty risks when they cannot be assessed in advance. This article would deal about one of the major powers in the world economy, the United States of America, their efforts in establishing an organization – The Department of Homeland Security and a critical analysis of its structure and functioning. About the Department of Homeland Security: The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department under the federal Government of the U.S. The main tasks of this department are to protect the United States from terrorist attacks and responding to natural disasters. This department works in order to protect the state within, at and outside its borders. The goal of this department can be defined as “to prepare, prevent and respond to domestic emergencies, particularly terrorism”.( Media Resources,2006) It was in 2003 that the Department of Homeland Security assumed its duties and now it is running with over 200 000 employees, being the third largest cabinet department of the United States. The formation of this department by President Bush was a response act to the September 11th attacks in the United States. The mission of the office was stated as “to develop and coordinate the implementation of a Comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks. The office will coordinate the executive branch’s efforts to detect, prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from terrorist attacks within the United States”. As a first step to achieve their mission the department had come up with a color coded terrorism risk advisory scale that provides “comprehensive information about the various risks to the federal, state and local authorities and to the people”. (Homeland Security) Homeland Security Advisory System. Actions will be intensified and protective measures strengthened if any area or department’s risk level rises. (Homeland Security) This is considered to be the largest Government reorganization since the U.S. Department of Defence was created. Any agency under the Department of Homeland Security will be housed in anyone of the four major directorates namely Border and Transportation security, Emergency of preparedness and response, Science and Technology and Information Analysis and Infrastructure protection. The Border and Transportation directorate includes representative agencies from Treasury, Justice, Transportation and Agriculture. The Emergency preparedness and response directorate brings together the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Strategic National Stockpile and the National Disaster Medical System (HHS), the Emergency, Justice and the National Domestic preparedness office. The scientific and technology directorate includes the CBRN Counter measures programs, Environmental Measurement Lab, National BW Defense Analysis center and Plum Island Animal disease center (for agriculture purpose). The Information and Infrastructure protection directorate includes the Federal Computer Incident Response Center, National Communications System, National Infrastructure Protection Center, Energy Security and Assurance program. Apart from this the Secret Service and the Coast Guard are also located in the Department of Homeland Security. Organizational Structure of Department of Homeland Security The border and transportation directorate is responsible to bring the border security and transportation operation under a single root. The emergency preparedness and response directorate will coordinate the Government disaster response. (White house website)This also takes care of the disaster preparedness training. The responsibility to utilize the scientific and technological advantages for securing the homeland is on the shoulders of Science and Technology directorate. The Information analysis and Infrastructure protection directorate takes the responsibility of analyzing the Intelligence and Information from agencies like CIA, FBI and NSA. The information collected by them includes issues related to threats for the homeland security and also regarding the risks in the nation’s infrastructure. On the surface the organization’s structure and responsibilities seem to satisfy the requirements to achieve the mission of this department. However, there are few loop holes that have been exposed recently. Failures of DHS and Suggestions for better DHS: This has resulted in many organizations questioning the purpose of this department and their functionalities. This organization has been criticized for excessive bureaucracy, waste and ineffectiveness. The criticism is the result of many issues that include assigning Important positions to inefficient/not eligible candidates (Example is the case of Laura Challan). Apart from this the grants provided to the employees are often being misused. This includes considerable wastage of financial resources of the department for the personal benefit of the employees which in turn get burdened as tax on the individuals of the state.( An Analysis report,2006) Apart from that huge finances are spent in carrying on the clandestine operations that give no results. A major blow to the working of this organization has been their inefficiency in restoring stability to the Hurricane Katrina. Apart from all these things, DHS is not able to spend enough resources to invest in the research purpose at various scientific research institutes. The statistics for the employee morale in this organization has fared poorly low scores for job satisfaction index, leadership and knowledge management index, results oriented performance culture index and talent management index. Major reasons for the low success rate of this organization are partly because of its organizational structure and partly because of the exclusion of certain important agencies. The Department of Homeland Security has included as many organizations to accomplish its mission however; it left out two most important agencies that have been protecting the state from ages-The FBI and the CIA (Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency). When the mission clearly states the risk mitigation concerned with terrorist attacks and threats, these are the two most important organizations that could be very handy. Apart from that the DHS has no way of collating information other than CIA and FBI when issues are serious. The response to natural calamities needs the help of man power that can be generated with the assistance of FBI. The CIA is known for its efficient results, analyses and reports and successes. Having a good record of the past history gives good base to develop prediction models and plan ahead to mitigate the risks. When there is a greater level of dependence of DHS on FBI and CIA, it becomes apt to involve them in the organizational structure of DHS. Not only these two, has the organization had a void when it comes to bringing the difficulties faced by people post calamities. A representative body for the welfare of the affected is something that creates a void. It is because of this reason that DHS is unable to properly understand the needs and is taking time for the initial response to incidents. Another important issue to consider is to have a check on the resources being spent and diverting more amounts on research in various domains to help the institutes provide better solutions. (An Analysis report, 2006)The principles and mission goals should be properly fed into the working styles of the employees. A training department is another aspect that DHS has to look upon. A department similar to Human Resource Management is more important issue here. Initially there was a proposal of imposing harsh rules of reassigning or dismissal of the employees but later this was eliminated and a friendlier environment was created for the employees. This is a relatively positive step as it enhances the employee’s morale. The centralization of the DHS working structure is one of the major reasons for its inefficiency in working. Better methodology would be to have a distributed- decentralized operation, each confined to a particular region or zone and then a collaborative action plan that would enhance the efficiency and work towards a common goal. Conclusion: DHS has to seriously think of the above mentioned issues so that it does not get tagged as the agencies of the state security of USSR of the Schotz Staffel of Nazi Germany. The novel idea of homeland security to combat the challenges faced by the US in appreciable. (Media Resources, 2006) How ever, the working needs to be more focused and most importantly coordination is an aspect that needs to be dealt in great detail. An effective structure with committed spear heads drives progress. Few amendments in the structure and working would definitely enhance the Department of Homeland Security’s work pattern and would bring out fruitful results. References: 1. An Analysis report: Analysis for the Homeland Security Act of 2002, 2006-04-06 2. Media Resources. Department of Homeland Security Media Resources, 2006-04-06. 3. Homeland Security Advisory System taken from http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/programs/Copy_of_press_release_0046.shtm 4. The White house website for organizational structure of DHS http://www.whitehouse.gov/deptofhomeland/sect2.html Read More