FEMA's Follies Exposed

The hits never stop coming with FEMA. The latest report recaps much of what I've blogged over the past several months. In particular, you've got FEMA spending thousands of dollars per mobile home but which can't be used because FEMA's own rules ban them in flood plains.

Then you've got widespread accounting problems and fraud in the disbursement of monies to Katrina victims:

The two audits found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under FEMA’s emergency cash assistance program — which included the $2,000 debit cards given to evacuees — were based on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names.

Separately, the Justice Department said Monday that federal prosecutors have filed fraud, theft and other charges against 212 people accused of scams related to Gulf Coast hurricanes. Sixty eight arrests were made, and 40 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 Washington Post notes that some of the money was spent on hotel rooms in New York City costing $438 per night.

Thousands of additional dollars appear to have been squandered on hotel rooms for evacuees that were paid at retail rather than the contractor's lower estimated cost. They included $438 rooms in New York City and beachfront condominiums in Panama City, Fla., at $375 a night, according to the audits.

Hasn't FEMA ever heard of Expedia.com or any of the other travel websites? Even the extended stay hotels and motels don't cost nearly that much. Those are gold-plated prices even by New York City standards.

The GAO report can be found here.

Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; kanye west; impeach bush; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; pascagoula; nagin; blanco; barbour.