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Printer-Friendly ModeRecent FEMA aid abuse demands accountability
June 26, 2006 —
Recently, I was made fun of for a miniature pillow that reads, "If Mom says no, ask Grandma." I was man enough to swallow my pride and confess that yes, I was indeed spoiled by my grandmother. In the wake of a recent Associated Press article, though, I do have an idea for a similar product: "If Mom says no to a sex change, ask the federal government."
Almost two weeks ago, the AP reported on a congressional study that concluded up to $1.4 billion of the individual aid doled out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was spent for bogus reasons. Among these reasons were the aforementioned sex change - which is probably better off left alone from here on out - along with season tickets to the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League, an all-inclusive, one-week Caribbean vacation in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic, and "Girls Gone Wild" videos, among other things.
And that is only the beginning. Frankly, it is not much of a surprise that some of the funds given to the victims were spent erroneously, and the reasons for that will be discussed a little later. What is surprising, however, is how badly FEMA was duped into giving aid to people who were not even victims of the hurricanes. Government Accountability Office (GAO) officials testified on Wednesday, June 14 before the House that an audit showed between $600 million and $1.4 billion in improperly awarded disaster relief money was doled out. FEMA claimed it identified $16.8 million of such money. That is quite the discrepancy and it shows just how much the two government agencies are removed from each other's information.
To make matters worse, the fraud is almost silly to an extent. According to the AP, the House was provided with a copy of a $2,358 U.S. Treasury check for rental assistance that an undercover agent received using a bogus address. The money was paid even after FEMA learned from its inspector that the undercover applicant did not live at the address. The GAO also told of an individual who used 13 different Social Security numbers - including the person's own - to receive $139,000 in payments on 13 separate registrations for aid. All the payments were sent to a single address. Finally, and this might take the cake, the auditors said that FEMA could not establish that 750 debit cards worth $1.5 million even went to Katrina victims.
The easy thing to do here would be to write, "FEMA sucks. The government just cannot stop screwing up." But after the way FEMA handled the disasters in the first place, writing that would simply be redundant. Besides, the blame should not be placed on FEMA; it should be blamed on those committing the fraud.
Earlier, I wrote that it is not surprising that those receiving the funds spent the money on some things that were exactly a "necessity." Similarly, it is not surprising that many others realized they could take advantage of this situation and actually make money off of such a terrible disaster. That is simply how many - well, not many, but some - Americans are. If FEMA made one mistake, it was giving $2,000 debit cards to people who most likely had never had that much money to spend at one time in their lives. Just like winning the lottery, the natural inclination of most who receive that much money that quickly is to spend it. On luxuries - I'm not sure "Girls Gone Wild" videos are considered a "luxury," but I digress - instead of necessities.
But the focus must go back to these supposed "victims" who threw FEMA for a loop and were given money to aid in recovery from a disaster that they did not even experience. "Prosecutors from the federal level down should be looking at prosecuting these crimes and putting the criminals who committed them in jail for a long time," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the subcommittee overseeing an investigation of post-hurricane aid. And he's right. Instead of simply laughing off the fact that someone used FEMA disaster aid money for a sex change operation, we as taxpayers should be taking offense to this and begging for a solution. We can only expect FEMA and prosecutors to take this situation seriously if we do the same.