Four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf coast, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has no centralized computer system set up to quickly obtain goods needed to respond to disasters and emergencies. That's the finding of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security, who recommended that the agency centralize purchases of disaster-aid goods and services into a single system supported by integrated information technology systems.

FEMA has many essential items stored in warehouses, and can purchase goods and services quickly. But the inspector general said there is no national strategy to pick a best source for an item in a given situation, leaving it to field-level decision makers. This ad hoc, decentralized approach lacks coordination, results in higher costs and often leads to over ordering and poor decisions, the IG said. 
 
The inspector general added that having a single point, centralized computer system for ordering goods and services in the midst of a disaster would "contribute to FEMA's ability to balance effectiveness, agility, reliability, speed, visibility and cost in sourcing."
 
FEMA agreed, and promised to submit a corrective action plan in three months.

For more on IG's report on FEMA:
- see this Federal Times article