Posted on 02/13/2006 6:24:38 PM PST by Ellesu
The government squandered millions of dollars in Katrina disaster aid, including handing $2,000 debit cards to people who gave phony Social Security numbers and used the money for such items as a $450 tattoo, auditors said Monday.
Federal money also paid for $375-a-day beachfront condos and 10,777 trailers that were stuck in mud and unusable.
Overcharges, poor accounting and abuses will take "months or years" to rectify, the Government Accountability Office and the Homeland Security Department's inspector general concluded in preliminary reports on how billions of dollars in taxpayer money is being spent.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency recognizes it "made many, many mistakes," and is working on improvement, said Homeland Security inspector general Richard Skinner. "But they're not where they should be. In some cases, the government will have little legal recourse to recoup payments to contractors for payments."
Separately, the Justice Department said Monday that federal prosecutors had filed fraud, theft and other charges against 212 people accused of scams related to Gulf Coast hurricanes.
Forty people have pleaded guilty so far, the latest report by the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force said. Many defendants were accused of trying to obtain emergency aid, typically a $2,000 debit card, issued to hurricane victims by FEMA and the American Red Cross.
The GAO report found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under the emergency cash assistance program -- which included the debit cards given to evacuees -- based their requests on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names.
In other instances, recipients improperly used their debit cards intended for food and shelter for $400 massages, a $450 tattoo, a $1,100 diamond engagement ring and $150 worth of products at "Condoms to Go."
The reports called for stronger controls to verify the eligibility of disaster victims who apply for aid over the phone and Internet, better planning of emergency supplies for hurricanes and improved accounting of FEMA's vast inventory of temporary housing.
Senators decried the problems.
"Once again, FEMA failed to adequately plan for the very type of disaster that occurs virtually every year," said Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs a Senate panel reviewing the government's response to the storm.
Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said hurricane victims and taxpayers alike were being "ripped off." "It's unacceptable and ultimately infuriating. We need to do everything we can to insist that FEMA and DHS prepare for the next disaster," he said.
The White House and Homeland Security officials defended administration actions against the criticism that is still going strong more than five months after the storm.
"I reject outright the suggestion that President Bush was anything less than fully involved," White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend said.
And Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff rebuffed the idea that his department was preoccupied with terror threats at the expense of natural disasters.
Chertoff announced the creation of a full-time FEMA response force of 1,500 new employees and the establishment of a more reliable system to report on disasters as they unfold.
The audits released Monday do not try to estimate a total dollar figure on waste and abuse, but GAO auditor Gregory Kutz told senators during a hearing that it was "certainly millions of dollars; it could be tens or hundreds of millions of dollars."
That includes money for hotel rooms for evacuees that were paid at retail cost. Among the charges: $438 rooms in New York City and beachfront condominiums in Panama City, Fla., at $375 a night.
FEMA also may have bought too many temporary homes, including 10,777 units that currently sit empty in sinking mud in Hope, Ark.
Meanwhile, a one-day "snapshot" investigation found a handful of cases where hurricane victims improperly sold free military foodstuffs known as "Meals-Ready-to-Eat" on eBay.
The reports weren't negative. An initial review by Skinner found that FEMA's decision to sign a contract with Carnival Cruise Lines for Hurricane Katrina housing shortly after the Aug. 29 storm "was reasonable under the urgent circumstances."
The six-month, $236 million deal with Carnival for three full-service cruise ships -- which initially sat half empty for several weeks on the Gulf Coast -- had been criticized by lawmakers of both parties as a prime example of wasted spending in Hurricane Katrina-related contracts.
However, Skinner said the decision appeared to be an economical choice "in a high-cost area such as New Orleans so long as occupancy remains high." A review of the contract's specific terms was continuing.
Some lawmakers expressed concern about the integrity of the total $9.2 billion in Katrina contracts awarded so far. Of more than 700 FEMA contracts valued at $500,000 or greater, more than half were awarded without competition, often to politically connected companies such as Bechtel Corp. and AshBritt Inc.
Audits of those no-bid contracts are under way.
"We want to go after individual people, but we also want to go after the big fish that conduct fraud as well," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.
Duck and cover.
Well, this is what happens when you hand out carte blanche credit cards (or the like) to people with little accountability.
It's also why many Americans get fed up at seeing their money being taken only to go to people that would spend it as such.
It makes one ponder what they do with the revenue streams that are so much easier to obtain, and so much more predictable.
You know, the tax revenues...
We just had a major "Nor' easter" up here in New England. I was wondering when FEMA was going to send me a debit card??????
I've been thinking that maybe the solution would be to abolish FEMA. Then accountability would be put where it belongs, on the first responders.
If it's a huge emergency, the feds can do what they've always done: send in the national guard and send in federal aid funds.
What will they do now? Spend another couple of billion investigating the corruption? They won't get any of the money back, and they won't fire any of the bureaucrats who screwed up, because they all have lifetime employment.
Massive fraud found in FEMA disbursementsor
Massive bureaucracy delayed payments to Katrina victims
Any mechanism that would have been effective in preventing fraud by those who didn't qualify for the aid would have caused huge delays in getting money to those who did.
Maybe make it like WIC, where the card or coupon or whatever is only good for what it's supposed to be used for? Not sure how that'd work mechanically - just a thought.
I know when I worked as a grocery store checker, back in the day, the store's system was built so WIC coupons could only be used for certain items. You could present all the WIC coupons you wanted, but you couldn't buy your smokes or beer with 'em.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
"Once again, FEMA failed to adequately plan for the very type of disaster that occurs virtually every year," said Susan Collins, R-Maine
Uh, yeah. A major US city is nearly wiped off the map virtually every year.
FEMA should have worked out deals with grocery chains and retail chains (with restricted item lists) and a few other places LONG before these cards are handed out like candy to a bunch of kids. Have the chains bid for addition to the list by providing some sort of discount to compete for an essentially captive market. And make darn sure that no alcohol, cigarettes and other unnecessary purchases can even be made.
Of course, our government is composed of idiots for the most part.
So...the news media INSISTED that the feds do something...ANYTHING for these people.SO, they buy trailers thinking that these people will be happy to have them...instead, no one wants to stay in them..Money, without any accountability, was given to alleviate suffering...and of course was abused. So now the press...who hyped the story and demanded action NOW show that what they were pushing was ineffectual and wasteful..
Isn't it wonderful to be in the press...they get to ignore their OWN mistakes and their complicity in this mess while lambasting the people who made decisions BASED on their faulty, hysterical reporting.
Massive fraud found in FEMA disbursements
or
Massive bureaucracy delayed payments to Katrina victims
EXCELLENT point!!! Many people at the time were worried about the amount of money given immediately with NO verification or accountability....but the press hyped this thing big time. If anyone suggested a more methodical approach, they were called racists and bigots!
.Don't get me wrong...there was terrible destruction BUT the press saying people were starving (in a space of 2 days) and killing each other all led to the irresponsible decisions made at the time.
Don't worry......they'll do a much better job when they're running our health care.
I'll get flamed, but I think the WIC program is one of the most sensible programs to help needy families. I just hate standing behind them at the store. Takes forever...
Here in CA, some counties switched to an EBT type of card for food stamps. Much more efficient. I cannot understand how bungled this evacuation became. Penthouses? Condos? Tattooes and condoms? Ohhhh man : (
Is it too late to cash in? A large gust of wind blew over a bird feeder on my property a few weeks ago. That should be good for a check from the FedGov for $10,000.
1. Anyone who chooses to live below sea level; anyone who chooses to live in a coastal area subject to high tides, hurricanes, and floods; anyone who lives in a mobile home in Oklahoma; anyone who lives within 500 miles of an active volcano; anyone who lives on or near a major quake fault deserves exactly what they get.
Conversely, they do not deserve MY MONEY! Let these morons buy insurance and FEND FOR THEMSELVES!
These same nitwits and mutants will rebuild in the same place, they will be hit again and again, and we will have to listen to their whining and begging for money!
Not a penny! Suck it up a-holes and fend for yourselves!
I do not know how WIC coupons differ in form and use from food stamps; however, I have many, many times seen folks at the nearby convenience store use food stamps to purchase a very small "allowable" item ... get a large amount of change ... and spend every bit of it on Lottery tickets. How does one guard against something like this and prevent it?
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