Sun-Sentinal: FEMA: A Legacy of Waste

[zimv20]

link (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-femareport,0,7651043.storygallery?coll=sfla-home-headlines)


FEMA: A Legacy of Waste

The handling of aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina is only the latest in a series of missteps and fraud that has plagued this tax-funded government agency.

The Sun-Sentinel took a look at 20 recent disasters and found mismanagement and misallocation abound.

THE FEMA INVESTIGATION

This report is the latest in a series by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel examining the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster assistance payments. The newspaper first revealed that FEMA paid $31 million in Miami-Dade County for Hurricane Frances, even though the Labor Day weekend storm made landfall 100 miles to the north. Subsequent reports detailed how FEMA inspectors receive little training; that the agency paid for funerals for deaths unrelated to the storm; and that some criminals were hired to inspect damage. The reports resulted in recommendations by a U.S. Senate committee and the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security for widespread changes in the way the agency administers its program. FEMA announced last month that it was making some alterations in the way it awards aid. The U.S. attorney in Miami has charged 16 Miami-Dade aid recipients with fraud. Fourteen have pleaded guilty and one was found not guilty after trial.

Hundreds of millions paid to people untouched by disasters (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-femamain1sep18,0,651163.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines)
The federal government's mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe is only the latest bungling in a national disaster response system that for years has been fraught with waste and fraud.

`Free money' went to thousands after wildfires (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-femalafires1sep18,0,6785158.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines)
LOS ANGELES · Word of "free money" from the Federal Emergency Management Agency spread through neighborhoods here like the wildfires burning in the hills miles away in the fall of 2003.

After tornado, a rush to claim cash (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-femamiami1sep18,0,645431.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines)
A tornado destroyed two dozen homes in the Liberty City area of Miami-Dade County in March 2003 but barely caused enough damage to qualify for federal aid, emergency management records show.

Agency poured funds into Detroit after storms (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-femadetroit1sep18,0,3892393.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines)
Detroit · A band of thunderstorms in 2000 flooded thousands of homes in the suburbs but caused no reported problems in the Motor City.

Disasters examined (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-femachartbox,0,7671769.htmlstory?coll=sfla-home-headlines)
The Sun-Sentinel analyzed 20 of the 313 disasters declared by FEMA from 1999 through 2004.

About this series (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-0917femaabout,0,4813323.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines)
Reporters analyzed data obtained from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on 1 million claims for 20 disasters from 1999 to 2004 and created maps showing the location and amounts paid.

[Dont Hurt Me]

More Federal waste and abuse, but shouldnt we be using the Dept of Homeland Security to blame instead of a agency that was removed from its mission? The Federal Govt isnt accountable for anything. Nothing. it doesnt matter what they do next. The Hurricane only went to show this in a big way. They will be spinning this a million ways and in the end we all get the bill or our grandkids will. We better start having a way to measure and correct the federal govts performance on a large amount of DOMESTIC issues. At the moment we have a govt gone astray. Corporations decide policy. Homeland Security beats its chest and yet the the Mexican border is left wide open? We are Fed spin.. They are using the American taxpayer. Rant over. :D time for a Coors. :)

[mactastic]

I wouldn't mind a little waste from an agency whose mission is to work in declared disaster areas if they were producing results.

What I do mind is massive waste and fraud with little results.

[Chip NoVaMac]

And we are supposed to be surprised by this? Just look at the roll call of companies that are profiting with the war in Iraq.

Then we have other companies that are being made to jump through hoops because of Sarbanes-Oxly. For the longest time we have lacked controls in any Administration to fight fraud and waste.

Having worked in the reseller market, I cringe at seeing my tax dollars squandered each September. Many years ago the place I worked for charged the US Navy manufacturers list price for some Nikon lenses. These prices are sometimes $100's over the actual street price.

[jsw]

Yar! Me thinks of me self as a fine gentleman o' fortune, but th' scallowags at FEMA be sendin' shivers up me spine. True pirates be they. Me hearties have a plank for 'em all to be walkin'. All th' captains, that is. Those that be servin' under 'em be a fine group o' sea dogs indeed.