Corruption is Rife Part 2!

Kia Ora,

Posts have been a little sparse of late due to the work in the red zone of the Christchurch CBD, moving due to a damaged property & generally getting things sorted to allow us to build for the future.

So it has meant putting on hold those posts that keep coming to mind. With the likelyhood of more sustained tasks posts will be when we are able to get them out.

Back to the title & the word corruption again it equates to the meanings that have appeared most often when googling previously. That is makes things worse & lacks integrity.

Further to the last post on this subject has been those instances that have arisen through the media such as the example(one of many) of an insurance company assessor saying it is going to cost $300,000 to repair their house only to have that countered by EQC wtih an assessment of $35,000. That is a huge difference, it is understandable it is causing frustration & anger.

Then there are the properties written off after the September wee shake that are been assessed again post the February Earthquake. As someone said "maybe they reckon the shake, shook it all Ok again". Nine months down the track that is not acceptable especially when someone then tells you about the anecdotal experience of a friend during the Kobe earthquake. Cleaned up in a month & rebuilt in eight months.

Add to that the friends & family who tell us a variety of nightmares. Such as the one tells how after the first visit they were told their house was likely to come down. Next person told them only some rebuild & some leveling cemment. When someone shows up to fix their house first they are told it is worse than they were told & it needs reassessment. Whilst waiting for that someone shows to fix other areas telling them parts of the house they were told were to be fixed are not covered.

Now if all that sounds confusing imgaine how householders feel & that is if they have been even visited.

Of course there are the mild mannered businsses people at the end of their wits trying to retrieve items to allow their business to continue with no real plan in place to help them & insurance issues now raising their ugly heads as insurance companies start to collapse meaning many are no longer covered.

Speaking of businesses there are those whose workers are waiting to carryout their professions but find the work has gone to those from out of town. Again it is causing frustration & anger.

Add in bureaucrats who say that the estimated 70,000 who left Christchurch following the February wee shake is actually only 8,000. How did they come to that number? By using statistics following some diasters overseas. They also point out those most likely to stay in their area are the better off.

So they haven't actually got out on the ground to find out. Many in the low income areas are still there because they just can't afford to leave. Though in the same token almost street after street in some suburbs are empty. They also have not taken into account the different mindset here as I have often pointed out this is New Zealand where people just think this doesn't happen to us.

Ends up the numbers they come up with affects their funding. If less have left more funding, not the actual numbers or likely issues.

Finally is the admission in both the 'Press' & on TV by the head of Civil Defence that been from the military he applied a military process which whilst good in the immediate aftermath of the disaster did not seem to fit the recovery process so much.

He also pointed out that one issue he found was been from the military he was used to people getting out & getting things down, whilst in Civil Defence below the top tier was a lot of well meaning enthusiastic volunteers & things didn't quite happen as fast or as was envisaged as he would expect.

These have been the issues I have had with Civil Defence from the start.

I agree that a military approach is very good in the first part of an emergency due to the training & ability to think on your feet. Unfortunately on the day it was those ex military & police in particular who were a big part of helping make a difference assisting the emergency services, not Civil Defence.

It also can be very good if applied correctly for the recovery.

The limiting issue has been the well meaning volunteers. Some are great for example the person who I saw took control in September. The only thing was that it took nearly a day & a half after the first shake before they were asked to show up. In the meantime those on site had been spending all their time so I was told deciding on how the table should be set up. It then meandered along until that person returned for their shift & got things organized. True it was a satellite position but they all need to be up & running as at any moment their role could change during a disaster.

What though seems to be the biggest issue is why I left Civil Defence in the first place. It has a process but whilst some were trying to run it along those lines, allowing people to use their initiative as long as the information was passed up & down the line. Others were using the old boy system, short cutting the system(nothing wrong there) but then not passing it up or down the line so everyone was in the know. Hence in so many instances the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

In one instance it took five days for information to get to the police(except via us & some police thought we were overstepping our role) that we as on site security were told direct.

Another meant that for nine weeks a demolition company was abused & threatened for knocking down a church illegally, which probably thousands of people saw on the day as about to fall down, only for Civil Defence finally admit it had given the order for it to be pulled down.

On yet another items were put out to the public via the internet or in the paper such as opening of new areas of cordon or allowing of business owners to access certain areas but not passed on to those on the ground. Again it caused anger & frustration. Not to mention the lack of communication to those with no internet or power for TV.

The new entity Cera has now taken over & right now there seems to be an urgency to get some things that have been causing frustration & anger completed. It remains to see whether things will now pick up.

Civil Defence needs to look hard at the way it operates especially here in Canterbury. Volunteers are great & we need them but it has to be done by people who can think on their feet but ensure the information still flows in the right directions quickly & correctly.

Some country area Police officers who responded to help told us of how the local civil defence had been caught out years before, had learnt their lessons & incorporated those lessons into both their training & set up.

It is not something I have seen either from my short time with Canterbury Civil Defence or the on going issues from the major earthquakes & their effects on Christchurch except at the top.

www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz