FEMA - not exactly a heck of a job

I couldn't let this story go by without a few comments.  From the "tell us something we don't already know" department ...

Audits: Millions of dollars in Katrina aid wasted

WASHINGTON - In its rush to provide Katrina disaster aid, the Federal Emergency Management Agency wasted millions of dollars and overpaid for hotel rooms, including $438-a-day lodging in New York City, government investigators said Monday.

Reports released by the Government Accountability Office and the Homeland Security Department’s office of inspector general detail a series of accounting flaws, fraud or mismanagement in their initial review of how $85 billion in federal aid is being spent.

The two audits found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under FEMA’s emergency cash assistance program — which included the $2,000 debit cards given to evacuees — were based on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names.

Nine hundred thousand out of 2.5 million -- that's over one third of them, folks.  Ready for more?

The audits included these findings:

• The $2,000 debit cards issued to hurricane evacuees for emergency supplies were often used for purchases unrelated to disaster aid, including: adult entertainment, gambling, a $450 tattoo, a .45-caliber handgun for $1,300 and a diamond engagement ring for $1,100.
• There was little or no verification of the names, addresses or Social Security numbers of applicants registering by phone or the Internet for the $2,000 in aid, resulting in thousands of checks issued to those with duplicate or bogus information.
• Duplicate payments were made to about 5,000 of the nearly 11,000 debit card recipients who received Katrina aid, first with debit cards and then again via electronic bank transfer. (That's NEARLY HALF. -Mike.)
• Although FEMA says it bought 114,341 trailers for $1.7 billion, discrepancies abound in FEMA’s documentation of the number ordered, received and occupied, making it difficult to ascertain the exact units available or whether government-owned property was otherwise accounted for.
• FEMA may have bought too many temporary homes — 24,967 manufactured homes obtained for $857.8 million and 1,295 modular homes at $40 million — resulting in 10,777 such homes sitting empty in Hope, Ark., in sinking mud without proper storage. “It was unclear how the decision was made,” the Homeland Security audit stated.

How about pure bloody incompetence?  That sounds like a plausible explanation to me.

Of course bloggers were all over the stories about Katrina victims friviolously spending their $2,000 handouts last October.

And I seem to distinctly remember liberals trying to smear anyone who would dare question the appropriation of Hurricane Katrina relief funds as racists who hate America.  As Glenn Reynolds would say, "heh."