A Billion MINUTES ago, Jesus was alive.
Audit says FEMA squandering Katrina aid
WASHINGTON - One year after Katrina, the government is still squandering tens of millions of dollars in wasted disaster aid, including $17 million in bogus rental payments to people who had already received free trailers and apartments, federal investigators said Wednesday.
At the same time, FEMA has recovered less than 1 percent of the $1 Billion it wasted on fraudulent hurricane assistance after the August 2005 storm, highlighting a need for stronger controls the next time a major hurricane strikes. {Gee, ya think?}
Last week, a federal judge in Washington ordered the Bush administration to resume housing payments for thousands of people displaced by Katrina, criticizing FEMA for a convoluted application process. {Why are we still paying for these deadbeats' rent?}
The GAO audit found that numerous aid applicants received duplicate rental aid, with FEMA in one case providing free apartments to 10 people in Plano, Texas, while sending them $46,000 to cover out-of-pocket housing expenses.
Another $20 million was wasted on thousands of individuals who claimed the same property damage from both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. FEMA also paid at least $3 million to more than 500 ineligible foreign students in the stricken Gulf Coast, the report said.
"The additional examples of potentially fraudulent and improper payments in our testimony today show that our estimate of $1 billion in improper and/or fraudulent payments is likely understated."
WASHINGTON - One year after Katrina, the government is still squandering tens of millions of dollars in wasted disaster aid, including $17 million in bogus rental payments to people who had already received free trailers and apartments, federal investigators said Wednesday.
At the same time, FEMA has recovered less than 1 percent of the $1 Billion it wasted on fraudulent hurricane assistance after the August 2005 storm, highlighting a need for stronger controls the next time a major hurricane strikes. {Gee, ya think?}
Last week, a federal judge in Washington ordered the Bush administration to resume housing payments for thousands of people displaced by Katrina, criticizing FEMA for a convoluted application process. {Why are we still paying for these deadbeats' rent?}
The GAO audit found that numerous aid applicants received duplicate rental aid, with FEMA in one case providing free apartments to 10 people in Plano, Texas, while sending them $46,000 to cover out-of-pocket housing expenses.
Another $20 million was wasted on thousands of individuals who claimed the same property damage from both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. FEMA also paid at least $3 million to more than 500 ineligible foreign students in the stricken Gulf Coast, the report said.
"The additional examples of potentially fraudulent and improper payments in our testimony today show that our estimate of $1 billion in improper and/or fraudulent payments is likely understated."
posted by Exador at
11:35 AM
5 Comments:
This is so damned disgusting.
By
Kat Coble, at 10:36 AM
Agreed, this has been a big fuck-up. But it doesn't hold a candle to the $2 trillion pricetag for Operation Iraqi Freedom. I take no pleasure in pointing out the boggling costs of this international cock-up, nor do I offer this in the spirit of one-upsmanship..just saying that I don't see the same sort of outrage about the mismanagement of the hugely more expensive war. It's sickening, the whole mess entire.
By
bridgett, at 5:29 PM
It's also more expensive than both apples and oranges.
Keep in mind, that's the money that was WASTED. The article didn't mention how much money was SPENT.
By
Exador, at 5:21 AM
Is it really apples and oranges? So you pay taxes just to finance domestic waste? See, how I thought it works is that tax money goes into a big pot, sort of like a toilet. Katrina waste was one flush. The war waste has been two thousand flushes and counting.
Think of what that money could have done at home, had we chosen to invest in our own country. In education. In the technology sector. In small business development. In energy research. In anything besides improved prosthetics. Instead, we get nothing to show for our money. Worse than nothing.
The two points of convergence here is that a) failures in oversight in spending by the Bush administration have led to catastrophic fiscal disasters; and b) the bungling of opportunities (like the response to crises) have left the country demoralized, without reliable leadership, and asshole deep in debt. I see them as two sides of the same incompetent coin.
Your ball. Why are they completely different?
By
bridgett, at 7:39 AM
That depends on whether we are talking about government incompetance, or expensive policies. Wars are expensive. If you disagree with us spending money on this war, that's a policy decision.
The idea here, see, is that we elect these bozos to perform the job of government, as dictated and limited by our constitution. If you don't like the choices they make, you can vote them out.
It's a whole other can of worms, if they decide to just make up powers that they don't really posess, and then fuck that up too.
By
Exador, at 11:14 AM
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