Reader Comment 05-26-10 CG Inspectors III

It always amazes me what subjects call forth reader’s comments. We have another look at the issue of Coast Guard Inspectors (CGI) with a response from another reader, Osocampna, to my post from February. Again, this is a lengthy comment and well worth the read at the end of that post. I want to take a look at one point that the writer makes about turn-over. Osocampana writes:

“Once the young man or woman figures out how to run the program, they move on and then people like me, who've been overseeing the regulatory compliance programs for major companies is left dealing with a new guy that doesn't know his arse from a hole in the ground. He interprets everything differently in an effort to distinguish himself from his predecessor and you find yourself revisiting ridiculous issues that were laid to rest years ago and that not only goes with the young E3, but for the officers as well. We recently had a LtCmdr openly state that "I reserve the right to be more intelligent that my predecessor." Upon hearing that, I could only shake my head.”

In my time in the physical security field in the military I took for granted the phenomenon that Osocampana describes; that was simply the way the military did things. When new inspectors rotated into the command they brought a new way of looking at things and the focus of inspections changed slightly. In a way it made for a program that did not grow stale overtime. Of course, the only thing that we were expending on the program was time and hard work; inspectors could not require the expenditure of real money or long term capital expenditures. In the CFATS program, or the MTSA program, the new look can require the significant expenditure of money, money that inevitably must come from business revenues and could potentially have an important impact on profits. Fortunately for Osocampana and his fellow regulatory compliance officers, the CFATS program is being administered by the civilian side of the Federal government where professional inspectors can be expected to be around for long periods of time. No, the ‘new requirements’ in the CFATS program will from the minds of politicians not the opinions of the new inspector on station. This will make them more predictable and allow for facilities to have more input into the change. I’m just not sure that it will make for a more robust program over time or if it will just end up like the enforcement programs found in OSHA and EPA; only effective in response to incidents not preventing problems. We’ll see.