When I first began studying nondestructive testing, I began to wonder about the costs associated with the problems that might be identified in an inspection. Specifically, what could happen if a flaw or problem was identified during the inspection and was NOT addressed immediately. This brought into consideration concerns regarding insurance and insurance fraud, but also about accounting in general. How did inspections and inspection reports factor into budgets as well as consideration of expenses and credit, or rather, accrual of value and how that could impact maintenance schedules, expansions, decommissionings or factors related to employee safety and compensation?

 

          I was originally alerted to something called “errors and omissions” insurance, but the other forms of insurance associated with industrial facilities did not become something I was apprised of until later and as part of my independent study. Much was changed in the insurance sector as a result of 9/11, including considerations of liability and insurance regarding “terrorist attacks” on industrial facilities and operations, both internationally and domestically. Outside of that, I also had a chance to review a manual from the Federal Department of Investigations from the mid-1980s regarding “wire tapping” policy and how “errors and omissions” insurance factored into allegations of “wire fraud” and money laundering.

 

          During my early efforts at studying I also encountered two books that I was able to read through and gleaned much insight into these considerations. One was called “Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn’t Add Up” by former U.S. Congressman Joseph DioGuardi from New York. This book was written in 1992 shortly after he finished his term of office. The former Congressman, who was also a certified public accountant, discusses the U.S. Government’s responsibility to use an accrual accounting system when it comes to addressing the federal budget process. The other book was called “Pipeline Risk Management” by W. Kent Muhlbauer. I purchased and read through the Second Edition. I recall wondering at the time if the First Edition had been published before the U.S. invasion of Iraq and if there had been any changes or reconceptualizations after the invasion of Iraq concerning the matters he addressed. In this book, I saw how Muhlbauer laid out a system for analyzing pipeline management costs that were not exclusively considered in contexts of risks and also addressed factors concerning adjustments.

 

          To this day I have not been “hired” by any gas and oil company, any law enforcement agency, or any company that provides inspection of industrial materials using the literal techniques and equipment with which I trained. But my understanding of the “inspection” process also meant intrinsic values, intangible costs and considerations, as well as understanding “pipeline management” in a context of the environment within which the inspection is performed. That ALSO included all the potential costs associated, as well as reason and “risks” associated with NOT investing in certain kinds of maintenance at the time, permitting the use of substandard materials, violating labor laws and extending the capacity of the ability of workers to be safe and at the optimal level of performance by factoring in labor schedules and personnel numbers in certain manners, and ALSO the potential incentivization that comes with leveraging the cost of an accident or problem with a facility or product. In that regard, understanding various relationships between public finance and private enterprise, as well as the legal and regulatory environment, as well as the insurance sector, also became a manner in which to understand the contextualization of industrial inspection processes.

 

          Some of these areas require certain kinds of licensing and certification. They also require regulatory bodies, standards bodies, inspectors general, auditors, and legislators. These matters are part of the pipeline. So too are matters connected to retail involving the product, and that also includes the person or people who purchase the product. The environments around retail operations are also a part of strategies concerning the inspection. If something gets put into the marketplace as a derivative of a specific industrial process, or if something gets put into the market as an offset of a cost that one subsidiary of a parent company is trying to leverage relative to costs or liabilities associated with other subsidiaries and their products, then the success of this product line can say a lot about the sorts of “risks” that suppliers of energy or entities responsible for creating industrial products take in regards to their production cycles.

 

          As someone who was also homeless at the time I was studying – and homeless for the reasons I understood myself to be homeless while I was studying – I also saw how other areas, including corporate policies around philanthropy or charitable giving, can influence the pipeline. I came to adulthood at a time with the Secretary of the Treasury was a man who was best known for his role in working with derivatives. What did this mean? Trillions of dollars in “derivatives” get traded every year in the financial sector; what, if any, relationship do these “financial derivatives” have to the production of “derivative” products that are created as part of, for instance, gas and oil refining?

 

          This was just the beginning of my attempt to understand how to reconcile the seeming disparity that I was experiencing in attempting to get access to basic resources like food, housing and transportation; studying a trade with techniques that I believed would provide a nice complement to my history as a researcher and journalist; and attempting to follow-up on reports of crime and corruption that had forced me to leave one city for another while also preventing me from being able to pursue another life option by legally leaving the country to travel to another.

 

          In October of 2017, I came up with my first formal business plan concerning my education and on April 13, 2020 I incorporated as Space Hawk, LLC. Part of what Space Hawk, LLC does is legal research and service, but there are also several plans I have developed concerning water conservation and monitoring, bioremediation, as well as a concept of full systems analysis in regards to addressing safe public financing regimes based upon quality public works projects that also involve value-added consideration regarding maintenance, compliance and timely inspection. I believe an inspection should NOT be considered just a cost, or something to attempt to evaluate as a risk in manners that I have seen thusfar. I believe that inspection services provide a possibility for a “noding” of a sort in the overall cost and other assessment of a project and can “accrue.” In fact, I believe the more comprehensive the inspection, the greater the potential for accruing credit insofar as it is followed up on diligently and consistently. With technology and the needs that we have as a society at this time, the development of techniques for assessment are important not only in terms of material value but also in terms of intangible value for the company or the community. They also provide a foundation for de-sublimating a lot of the automation that is being attempted more recently and have the possibility of providing contexts for demystifying certain industrial processes so as to prevent against exploitation and disinvestment. It ALSO protects individuals and communities from CRIME that masquerades as “risk.”

 

          Ideally, balancing this sort of “technical need” with more creative contexts would lead to a flourishing and responsible society. It would also provide for LESS consumption as individuals and communities refine their tastes and preferences with regards to comprehensive quality assessments that see the merits of the intrinsic values of a product in addition to the material and tangible factors that delight the senses. Things could be less disposable and more accountable.

 

 

4:56 pm CST

Feb. 5, 2021