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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (2897)	6/14/2006 10:18:51 AM
From: Ann Corrigan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224706

Why did Democrats permit the following abuse of US taxpayers? Are they not in control of Lousiana state government?-- FEMA Reports $1B Katrina Fraud By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — Sloppy mistakes and con artists cost FEMA at least $1 billion in questionable disaster-relief claims in the six months after last year's devastating Gulf Coast hurricanes, according to a report by government investigators due out today. The government sent checks to thousands of people who registered with FEMA using information belonging to prison inmates or who provided only a post office box as the address of their damaged home, according to the Government Accountability Office, the watchdog agency of Congress. FEMA, the accountability office said, needs to immediately put "adequate safeguards" in place to "build the American taxpayers' confidence that federal disaster assistance only goes to those in need." Among the many examples of waste and fraud cited in the report: • Roughly $5.3 million was paid to people who gave only post office boxes as their address. In one case, FEMA sent $2,358 to someone who claimed a damaged house in a New Orleans cemetery; in another, FEMA sent $4,358 to someone who listed his residence as a UPS store. • Millions more was sent to more than 1,000 people who used names and Social Security numbers of inmates in prisons along the Gulf Coast and across the country. In one case, FEMA sent $4,358 to a Mississippi prisoner who gave officials his correct mailing address — at the prison where he'd been locked up since 2004. • FEMA reimbursed people for rent at the same time it was paying for them to stay in a hotel. For example, the agency paid $8,000 for someone to stay in a California hotel for five months and also sent that person $6,700 in rental assistance for the same period. • One person received 26 FEMA payments totaling $139,000 using 13 different Social Security numbers and 13 addresses, eight of which did not exist. FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said the agency has already made some reforms to cut down on fraud this hurricane season. "FEMA's highest priority during a disaster is to get help quickly to those in desperate need," Walker said. But "even as we put victims first, we take very seriously our responsibility to be outstanding stewards of taxpayer dollars." Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee said "fraud, no matter the amount, is unacceptable."