Auditors Find Huge Fraud in FEMA Aid (NY Times)

[Up2Late]

(Yes, that's right! Looks like the Congress is going to blame the victims again, the fraud is all our fault! And yet, we still don't have that investigation into the failed response * promised 5 months ago!)

Auditors Find Huge Fraud in FEMA Aid

By ERIC LIPTON
Published: February 11, 2006

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 — Thousands of applicants for federal emergency relief money after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita used duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers or bogus addresses, suggesting that the $2.3 billion program was a victim of extensive fraud, a Congressional auditor will report Monday.

The examination of the so-called Expedited Assistance program determined that the Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to take even the most basic steps to confirm the identifies of about 1.4 million people who sought expedited cash assistance, leaving the program vulnerable to the "significant fraud and abuse," the Government Accountability Office intends to report.

The auditors did not try to estimate the total dollar amount of fraudulent claims. But the report says that FEMA itself had found that 900,000 of the 2.5 million applications for all forms of individual assistance were "potential duplicates."

Even when FEMA's automated computer system picked out what might be fraudulent applications, payments were at times still sent, says the advance testimony of Gregory D. Kutz, the managing director of the G.A.O.'s forensic audits unit.

(more at link below)

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/11/politics/11report.html?ex=1297314000&en=c770c6780a4faa51&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>

[Dunvegan]

1. Who's in charge of the audit? The zombie CPA's of Arthur Andersen?

[Up2Late]

2. Wide-scale fraud likely in FEMA's Katrina aid - NYT (Reuters)

(Here's the Reuters version and link, for those who don't want to give the NY Times their info)

Wide-scale fraud likely in FEMA's Katrina aid - NYT

Sat Feb 11, 2006 01:36 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than one-third of the 2.5 million applications for individual assistance after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were "potential duplicates," suggesting that FEMA was the victim of extensive fraud, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

According to the Government Accountability Office, thousands of applicants for federal emergency relief money after the devastating storms lashed southern states last year used duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers or bogus addresses, the Times said, citing a GAO report to be released on Monday. The newspaper obtained a copy of the report.

GAO examined the Expedited Assistance program and determined that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was widely criticized for its slow response to help storm victims, at the same time failed to take even the most basic steps to confirm the identifies of 1.4 million people who sought expedited cash assistance, leaving the program vulnerable to "significant fraud and abuse," the Times said.

While the newspaper said auditors did not estimate the dollar value of fraudulent claims, it noted that the government report says FEMA itself found that 900,000 of the 2.5 million applications for all forms of individual assistance were "potential duplicates." Even in cases where computers ferreted out possible fraudulent applications, payments were still sent in some cases, according to advance testimony by Gregory Kutz, managing director of the GAO's forensic audits unit.

(more at link below)

<http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=11178375&src=rss/domesticNews>

[FloridaPat]

3. But there was no fraud in giving Halliburton a no-bid contract to

clean up the mess. That was OK. And let's see here - $2.3 billion - that's a little over a week's worth of money that's spent in the biggest fraud of all - the Iraq invasion.

[OneBlueSky]

8. not only Halliburton . . . there were many "connected" corporations . . .

that got no0bid contracts -- possibly the most egregious being Blackwater for "security" (i.e. mercenary) services . . . this administration holds the all-time record for pissing money away . . . and how Halliburton can receive ANY contracts while making annual payments to Cheney and not have a conflict of interest is beyond me . . .

[rodeodance]

4. this group is a disasater at managing $$-both abroad and domestic!

[rodeodance]

5. Money speaks-should be a campaign theme: Where is the lost $$ ????

[wordpix2]

13. yes to campaign theme: Our tax dollars squandered by gov. agencies under *

[Daphne08]

6. If there was fraud, then those who committed the fraud need

to be found and punished AND at the same time, those who committed fraud in Iraq need to be caught and punished as well. (Anyone remember the 'Oversight Hearing on Waste, Fraud and Abuse in U.S. Government Contracting in Iraq' February 14, 2005, when a very frustrated Senator Dorgan finally asked, "Does anyone care?" No Republicans bothered to attend by the way.)

I mean, let's be honest. How much did the government lose in N.O. and on the Gulf Coast compared with the billions lost through incompetence, bribery, theft, etc., in Iraq.

Fraud is fraud. Period.

[Moosepoop]

7. Here we go.

This will generate all sorts of nasty commentary about the Katrina victims -- again.

When the talking heads on TV, in print, and at the grocery store start yammering about how the Katrina victims abused the system (like they did about the "looting" and so forth), we need to counter with this:

Sure, there was fraud.

There were fraudulent "charities" popping up all over the place after the storm, too, bilking people of money that they thought they were donating to victims. There are hucksters everywhere, and they surface at every opportunity.

BUT....

Beware of mistaking the true victims of Katrina -- those who were displaced by the storm, herded into shelters, and scattered across the country with nothing but the clothes they had on -- with the people who scammed the government using bogus S.S. numbers and addresses.

THEY ARE NOT THE SAME PEOPLE!!!!!

I have a lot of issues with the "information" in the report that the articles talk about, but I have to leave for work so I can't go into them right now. The main thing is that whatever fraud occurred, it was done by opportunists who DIDN'T need the money in the first place, NOT by those who WERE entitled to it. That's what makes it fraud.

As for those who were truly displaced, and got more than one check or debit card (if this happened at all), I'm willing to bet that FEMA bungled itself up and sent things more than once on its own, not due to the recipients deliberately requesting additional payments on their own.
Many of the true victims never got their FIRST check or debit card, let alone additional ones, and ran into nightmares just trying to navigate the "system".

We need to start debunking the "Katrina victims are frauds!!" meme before it gains traction. It will anyway, but I'm loaded for bear and ready to go, for what it's worth.

[japple]

9. You are absolutely right! I don't know how many interviews I heard

with people who were displaced by the Hurricane talk about how they got shuffled from one office to another and had to fill out so much paperwork. They filled out forms in one state, then they were moved to another state and had to fill out forms there. And some of them lost all of their family records in Katrina. These poor people are being used as scapegoats for the mistakes of a ineffective govt. program.

[bleedingheart]

10. and it is likely not as widespread as the article is stating

but like Reaganites...the Bushies will paint Katrina victims as living large and driving cadillacs...

[Child_Of_Isis]

11. FEMA bungled itself up

Of course. Then they turn around and blame the victims to take the heat off of their own incompetence. It's the puke way. "Responsibility" only applies to other folks, not themselves.

[pitohui]

14. many real victims never got any fema help at all

if you were unable to get to the internet, telephone, or electric at the time -- which was impossible for many people -- your identity and information was already stolen by someone in california and you couldn't get anything from fema or red cross

i know people it happened to

the katrina victims are not the ones who perpetrated the fraud, we weren't able to place phone calls in many cases for weeks, w. both land lines and cell phones broken, there was no electricty until up past north of meridian to get on the internet, etc.

by the time you got to a place where you could communicate and could get in line on the internet or on the phone, a lot of times you discovered your aid was already taken by someone pretending to be you who had evacuated!

they arrested several of these people already in california

they are not from louisiana in many or most of these cases

actual victims had no way to get any of this help for days or weeks!

worst of all, once your name and social security number was taken, you don't get ANYTHING

[Up2Late]

12. kick n/t

:kick:

[Coastie for Truth]

15. IThe fraud, waste and abuse is FEMA's

with all of the Dissing of the Red Cross in the Media , and

Ladies and gentlemen,

Boys and Girls,

Dems and Repubs,

Children of All Ages --->>

I was there on the ground, and I was there at 2 AM fires (where avaricious landlords had neither smoke detectors nor sprinklers) finding shelter for 80 Section VIII families, and I was there spending Christmas Eve with refugees from Katrina who had just been burned out of their Section VIII apartment, and I have lived in the shelters and dished out the food for Ameria's new homeless.

And I posted all along -- it's FEMA -- and Bush, Cheney, Rove, Chertoff, Brownie are diverting attention from (covering up) their own failings

And I was on talk radio with both Bernie Ward and Ray Taliafero -- saying that relocation sites were determined by eletoral considerations.

I don't want a medal or a reward or even an apology - I am vindicated

[Up2Late]

16. Thank You for your service Coastie! I hope you can get your voice...

...heard regarding this lousy Congressional auditor's report. This blame the victims crap should be illegal.

I don't know if you want to, but you should write to NPR's "Morning Addition" and see if they would want to interview you as a counter-point to this report. They are probably already working on the story for Monday, and they are one of the earliest News reports on Monday (start at 5:00am) <http://www.npr.org/contact/>

[pitohui]

17. coastie i never doubted you and you did a great job

you know what i've been thinking?

someone had to provide these rings with the socials and names of katrina victims who were unable to file claims because we had no access to electric or phone, someone had to be fast on their feet w. this information to be able to steal the money before the real people w. those identities got online or on the phone to file their claims

i don't believe the fraud was official gov't policy or anything but if you are talking about hundreds of thousands of fraudulent claims w. socials filed -- someone had access to social security information on a large scale, which means organized crime, hacking into our supposedly private information etc.

several of the folks arrested last month for the fraud were in california, how did they get these names and socials?

so many katrina victims were hurt twice, by the storm and then by denial of prompt aid because "our records show your ex-husband who lived in oregon" collected your money and other b.s. of that nature

who sold public records containing socials on this scale?

this is very disturbing and goes way beyond the $2K per person denied to many of the evacuees at a time they needed it most, when we go to collect social security, will we be denied because someone else posing as us has claimed early retirement and already taken the money?

this is just scary and unfair on so many levels

and they damn well better not blame this on new orleans, people in new orleans had NO PHONE and NO ELECTRIC, they had no way to do this!

[librechik]

18. hello--if I get flooded out in the middle of the night

maybe I won't have time to grab my original SS card!

Bastards....