That, among other things, is the only conclusion that can be reached in the wake of an investigation from the General Accounting Office of the funds paid out by FEMA in the wake of last year’s hurricanes.
WASHINGTON — The government doled out as much as $1.4 billion in bogus assistance to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, getting hoodwinked to pay for season football tickets, a tropical vacation and even a divorce lawyer, congressional investigators have found.
Prison inmates, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address, and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel all were able to wrongly get taxpayer help, according to evidence that gives a new black eye to the nation’s disaster relief agency.
Federal investigators even informed Congress that one man apparently used FEMA assistance money for a sex change operation.
Because, of course, his sexuality was devastated in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. And that, sadly is only the tip of the iceberg:
The investigative agency said it found people lodged in hotels often were paid twice, since FEMA gave them individual rental assistance and paid hotels directly. FEMA paid California hotels $8,000 to house one individual _ the same person who received three rental assistance payments for both disasters.
In another instance, FEMA paid an individual $2,358 in rental assistance, while at the same time paying about $8,000 for the same person to stay 70 nights at more than $100 per night in a Hawaii hotel.
FEMA also could not establish that 750 debit cards worth $1.5 million even went to Katrina victims, the auditors said.
And just what were those debit cards used for ? Well, lets just say it wasn’t roofing supplies. The booty included:
- an all-inclusive, one-week Caribbean vacation in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic.
- five season tickets to New Orleans Saints professional football games.
- adult erotica products in Houston and “Girls Gone Wild” videos in Santa Monica, Calif.
- Dom Perignon champagne and other alcoholic beverages in San Antonio.
- a divorce lawyer’s services in Houston.
I’d say I was shocked by this latest abuse of government largesse, but, sadly, I am not.
June 14th, 2006 at 8:59 am
So, we don’t assist? What are you saying? Better oversight? Got a better plan? What is it?
June 14th, 2006 at 9:05 am
[...] First, see his coverage of the Katrina-relief fraud. Of course, I expect some fraud when you’re doling out money, as money attracts thieves. But 1.4 BILLION dollars?!?! [...]
June 14th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Rebecca,
To say we need better oversight is an understatement. You cannot possibly be telling me that this was handled well can you ?
As for a better plan, yeah, get rid of FEMA. Stop subsidizing people who live in areas at high risk of natural disasters. If someone builds a house on the beach in North Carolina and it gets knocked down, why should I pay to have it rebuilt ?
June 14th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
In the article about the report I read the GAO estimated as much as 16% of distributed funds were unwarranted. To me, it doesn’t matter what the $ was spent on. People spend $, especially windfalls, on anything and everything. To me, the point is that the money was stolen by unscrupulous opportunistic cheats and how can we get any of it back (doubtful much) and how to keep this fraud to a minimum in the future. To innumerate all the wacky things these people spent the money on focuses attention on the swindlers and we tend to extrapolate the feeling that our $ is wasted on the whole relief endeavor.
If 16% was fraudulently obtained, it does mean that 84% of the money was distributed to deserving recipients and used for what it was intended.
So, after you get rid of FEMA, what then? How do we respond to disasters? What’s the organizational structure to do it efficiently and effectively?
As for the beach house in NC, I’m with you on that. But that’s a different subject.
June 14th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Rebecca, A better system would be to fix the cards so that they can only be used for certain items. In Texas our “welfare” Lone Star cards can only be used for food. They can not buy smokes, liquor or other unnecessary items. They government was handing out debit cards that could be used for anything, and anything they did buy. Here in Houston, the government just authorized another month of rental assistance to Katrina “victums”. Yea! Right. It’s been nine months and the government is still paying for free rent to many who just don’t want to work. I have a friend who lives in one of the apartment complexes that are housing some of the “victums”. Most of them just walk around the complex all day long and few of them work. It is a sad sight to see. I don’t mind it when “we the people” are helping disabled people or people who are truly in need. What I mind are the people who are just looking for a hand out and who are still getting assistance nine months later. People who are truly in need shouldn’t be buying jewelry, trips, football tickets, spending at erotic nighclubs, etc. I hope they completely revise how they give assistance to storm “victums”.
In the past, Fema handed out loans that we to be paid back at a reduced rate of interest to those that needed it. When did we just start handing out “free” money? The Red Cross are the ones that are supposed to help with that kind of assistance.
There has been all kinds of fraud in how the clean-up process is to be handled. My son is working in Lousiana on a dry-wall crew and he has seen all kinds of unscruplous things.
June 15th, 2006 at 9:30 am
Lucy, What a common sense idea!! The “limited use” card seems to me would be effective in hindering fraud. And simple to implement.
Of course people truly in need WOULDN’T buy frivolous goods and services. Then again, we Americans often have a whacked out understanding of what a “want” or “need” is….it’s certainly instilled in marketing students that the two words have the same meaning. But again, I don’t care WHAT these crooks spent the $ on. I care that they bilked us in the first place.
I agree with you that it’s vital for the gov’t to loan rather than hand out $ to evacuees. And not just because of the obvious (and infuriating) reason of wasting taxpayers’ $, Handouts cripple a person’s sense of responsibility and self esteem. Much healthier to require repayment. But, how many of us would turn down “free $”?
okay, I’m rambling…I’ll push “send” now….
October 21st, 2006 at 9:37 am
[url]http://yahoos.com[/url]
April 1st, 2007 at 11:11 am
hey, i found this blog today, and as a “Victim” of Katrina, i did not recieve all this assistance that you are talking about, probably because i am honest.
i don’t even know if you still monitor this site or not, but i am going to reply.
i lost everything that i owned, fema put me into an apartment, but i pay the rent. the only things that i had when i got here, were a pillow from the red cross, and a borrowed sleeping bag. That was it.
i am not sure how those people recieved all the funds that they did, but i would like to know so that i could recieve some!
it has been over a year since the hurricane, i am blessed that i now have furniture, pots to cook in and plates to eat off of, but i am still in a town not of my own choosing, i still feel as if i don’t belong, and since i am disabled, not able to work to be able to move into something better than where i am now.
BUT, i have enrolled in college, and taking courses, so maybe someday i will be able to get a job that i will be able to work at.
i am blessed because i am doing the best i can everyday, don’t have to worry about going to prison, because i don’t do anything dishonest, but i miss my life, my friends.
i truly wish i could get a “loan” from anyone to get me out of this apartment, if you know of any resource where i could get a loan, please let me know.
not everyone who recieved help from the government after katrina were crooks. I know of many families and individuals such as myself that even after a year and a half are still displaced. We don’t have many options, and then the ones like me, the disabled, were put in tiny towns that close up at 7:00 at night, not even a gas station open, so the chances of employment for the handicap are non exsistant.
so instead of complaining all the time, why don’t you folks with all the intelligence (and obviously time on your hands, this blog proves it) use your intelligence to figure a way out for the folks like me. Where are the resources that we can turn to?
People, i am not feeling sorry for myself,( i don’t sit on a pity pot), but instead of always complaining about things, why don’t you try to change things? I am handicapped, but still i am dong everything possible in my situation to change things. I reach out and help the people less fortunate than I am. I give rides to folks here that have no cars, I take them to the doctors, to the stores, etc. so they can get things like meds, or toilet paper. What are you doing to change things besides complaining?