State unready for disaster, audit says

03/11/2008

Lack of recovery plans in case of a natural catastrophe or attack could be "devastating," a report says. Agencies cite lack of resources, money for the problem.


By MARK BRUNSWICK,
Star Tribune
March 7, 2008


The state government is inadequately prepared to recover from a natural disaster or terrorist attack that might disrupt critical services, the legislative auditor says. In a report issued Friday, the legislative auditor says failure to recover quickly from such an unlikely but possible event could have "a devastating impact."

The audit surveyed 20 executive branch agencies to find out their contingency plans in the event their operations were disrupted and found that many plans were out of date, not adequately tested or missing altogether. Four agencies had never completed a risk assessment and 12 had not done so in four years. Nine agencies had not developed a plan to relocate crucial staff members, the report said.

The agencies told auditors that they lacked resources or funding to maintain an adequate contingency plan to recover from disruptions caused by such events as natural disasters, a computer virus or terrorist attacks.

"Failure to adequately plan for and recover from a disruption could have a devastating impact," the report warned, affecting such things as the $15 billion in taxes collected a year; aid to 170,000 unemployed citizens, and medical aid payments to low-income senior citizens, children and people with disabilities.

The state only recently began to coordinate its model for continuity planning through the Office of Enterprise Technology.

Officials acknowledged the difficult task of coordinating contingency planning and said a work group from various agencies has been formed to develop plans. They also said they needed additional funding to test the plans.

"Commonly referred to as 'recovery strategies,' this area is one where the audit was extremely critical of our current capabilities," wrote Gopal Khanna, the state's chief information officer. "It also is the most costly aspect of the problem."