To be perfectly fair, having been involved in a number of catastrophe responses, the managers are going to be criticized no matter what they do.
If they have tight controls in place, the response, by definition, moves slowly and they’re criticized for that.
If they move quickly, by definition the response is not well controlled and fraud and waste happens. They are they criticized for that.
Goes back to the old saw: You can have fast, cheap or quality. Pick any two.
But you can’t have all three.
Which is not to say that the managers in these cases cannot also be involved in conscious fraud/waste. Only that it’s terribly easy to unfairly criticize even good faith attempts at response.
You can if you know what you are doing. We do it in the private sector everyday. I’ve been in charge of million dollar projects that, with simple planning, moved quickly, efficiently and cost effectively.