Unique Federal-State Partnership in Incompetence
Perhaps the Katrina 11 were on to something, although the 400-plus who approved the Katrina aid bill will argue that they didn't approve this:
The handling of the first federal disaster relief money to arrive in the wake of Hurricane Katrina was riddled with improprieties, Louisiana's three top fiscal watchdogs say.
The process that granted $219 million in aid was fraught with irregular accounting, sloppy records and little oversight, they say.
State and local agencies will receive another $457 million this morning.
State Treasurer John Kennedy, Legislative Auditor Steve J. Theriot and state Inspector General Sharon Robinson stopped short of calling it fraud. But each says the way the money was awarded on Sept. 16 was so shoddy that the allegation may rise in the years that come.
All three blame the Federal Emergency Management Agency for failing to follow its own procedures and tossing out packets of money with little accounting....
The seven packets of applications for the initial $219 million federal payment were processed without supporting documentation, proper signatures and identification numbers. Further, federal money was spent on work that was nowhere near completion....
The Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress that oversees public funds, is initiating a review of FEMA's preparedness and response to the storm, said spokesman Paul Anderson.
FEMA officials don't disagree with the criticisms, saying that the agency initially tried to distribute the funds as fast as possible. That will change in the future as the needs become less urgent....
But FEMA does not supply the only members of the team that reviews requests for accuracy. Employees of the state Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness jointly fill out the forms with FEMA.
Major General Bennett C. Landreneau, who is the adjutant general for Louisiana and OEP director, did not return three calls Thursday....
In case you think that Landreneau has been struck with laryngitis, he has recently spoken:
"This is terrible. Whole communities are gone," Louisiana National Guard head Maj Gen Bennett Landreneau [said].
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