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National Planning Scenarios Remain Incomplete |
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by Mickey McCarter
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Tuesday, 23 March 2010 |
DHS also must supply more info on them, IG says
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has made significant progress on strategic plans for only half of US National Planning Scenarios to date, noted the DHS inspector general (IG) recently, and more homeland security stakeholders should have access to information on the scenarios.
None of the eight National Planning Scenarios has a full set of plans for emergency response, noted the IG report, DHS' Progress in Federal Incident Management Planning, but delays in planning for the eight scenarios is partly due to delays in adopting and implementing the Integrated Planning System, which guides federal planning processes.
The DHS director for Operations Coordination and Planning should improve access to the repository of emergency management plans for federal incident management stakeholders, the IG report recommended. DHS agreed with the recommendation and it has begun doing so.
Yet the National Planning Scenarios, initiated by a presidential order in 2006, still remain largely incomplete, the report found.
Each planning scenario requires a strategic guidance statement, a strategic plan, and a concept of operations plan. Each federal agency that hold responsibilities within the planning scenario must produce an operations plan for the Domestic Readiness Group to fulfill those duties within 120 days of approval of the concept of operations plan.
But to date, only five of the eight National Planning Scenarios have strategic guidance statements and only four of eight have strategic plans. Only one of the eight scenarios--the Terrorist Use of Explosives--has a concept of operations plan.
Federal agencies with responsibilities involving terrorist explosives were scheduled to submit their operations plans to the Domestic Readiness Group by September 2009, the report said. But the Homeland Security Information Network, which contains information related to the National Planning Scenarios, only provides access to that information to federal stakeholders and not private sector parties with an interest in the information.
Three of the National Planning Scenarios lack strategic guidance statements to date, the report cautioned. Those scenarios include the Natural Disaster scenario, Cyber Attack scenario, and the Pandemic Influenza scenario. DHS could speed the development of plans for these scenarios by enlisting the assistance of other federal agencies with responsibilities under them in the planning process, the report suggested.
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Mickey McCarter |
| About the author: |
| eNewsletter Editor/Senior Washington Correspondent,
is a journalist with more than a decade of experience in reporting
on
military affairs and information technology.
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