Dateline: Home Study

The Washington Post reports today the Senate has passed a bill that requires the Inspector General to investigate the $237 million Carnival Cruise Lines ship deal. In the aftermath of Katrina, at a time when the news media and the public were screaming that the government was not doing enough to provide relief and that they were dragging their feet, the government entered into this deal. The three ships were to provide berthing for 7,100 people but it turned out that most emergency workers used the rooms.

If there was any impropriety involved then an investigation should certainly be conducted but there are a few things must be considered. First, you can reserve a room a ship. If you want the ship to stay at port and turn away cruise customers then you get the whole thing or nothing. Second, the need was immediate; there was not time to send a request for proposals and review bids. Third, the investigation of the actions of any official working in crisis must be conducted with caution lest you cause greater problems for the future crises. There is a very simple rule to be remembered here: if you want every “t” crossed and every “I” dotted, then you need to take time for review. If you want to handle a crisis then you sacrifice a few crossed “t”s in exchange for speed. In the end I suspect we will learn that even in spite of this deal, Carnival lost money compared to what it could have earned from cruises.