This story of Katrina and New Orleans just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. First, the fraud is a big deal, esp because so much of it seems to be linked to the same kind of massive no-bid government contractor fraud as we also hear so much about in Iraq.
But then this FEMA angle is just bizarre. A crony boss (Brownie) can't turn it into a culture of corruption on this scale overnight. Still, there were the Florida hurricanes the year before. I'd just chalked the irregularities there up to election-year pandering, but maybe there was something more going on after Ivan, Charley, and Frances, when people were getting FEMA money and buying new appliances in parts of Florida where no hurricane hit.
This story below just takes the cake, however. Bold emphasis is mine.
Link: More Katrina Waste, Fraud Said to Be Seen - Yahoo! News.
More Katrina Waste, Fraud Said to Be Seen
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
50 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The government is at risk of squandering significantly more money in a Gulf Coast rebuilding effort that has already wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, federal investigators said Wednesday.
Prosecutors and inspectors general from five agencies addressed a House subcommittee on Katrina rebuilding and pledged stronger oversight to combat waste. They cautioned that some of the biggest fraud may be yet to come as some of the larger government contracts are awarded.
[...]
It also comes amid heightened congressional scrutiny of contracts and audits showing the government wasted hundreds of millions of dollars — much of it on large contracts awarded to large, politically connected companies — in the initial days after the Aug. 29 storm.
Last week, the Senate passed a little-noticed provision in its $109 billion Iraq and hurricane relief bill that would block the government from entering into no-bid contracts in excess of $500,000. The provision was prompted by numerous reports of bloated Katrina-related contracts.
[...]
During the hearing, investigators:
- Identified poor data-sharing among agencies as a major barrier to stemming fraud. Collaboration between Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration, the IRS and the Postal Service, for instance, would allow the government to verify names and addresses of aid applicants.
- Said they had filed fraud, theft and other charges against 261 people accused of hurricane-related scams; 44 have been convicted. Many of the defendants were FEMA employees accused of soliciting bribes from contractors in exchange for higher government payments; or individuals fraudulently obtaining emergency aid.
- Said they were reviewing delays in the processing of $9 billion in small business loans. While internal controls might explain why only $1 billion has been disbursed to Gulf Coast victims, "We are looking into whether agency inefficiencies are contributing," said Eric Thorson, inspector general for the Small Business Administration.
- In the months since the Aug. 29 storm, the government has appropriated some $85 billion for Katrina rebuilding, and the Senate last week approved an additional $28 billion. Of the $85 billion, agencies have awarded about 6,665 contracts worth $9.7 billion.
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