GAO finds mismanagement of hurricane aid

[tocqueville]

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer
4 minutes ago

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.

Agents from the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, went undercover to expose the ease of receiving disaster expense checks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The GAO concluded that as much as 16 percent of the billions of dollars in FEMA help to individuals after the two hurricanes was unwarranted.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20060613/ap_on_go_co/katrina_fraud_3

[sutz12]

1. Funny, but I seem to remember FEMA working under Clinton.

:shrug:

[The Deacon]

2. Under Carter, Too

Only seems to fail when under the command of guys named Bush (Andrew, Katrina/Rita)