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Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
June 18, 2006
Defense fraud worse
than hurricane rip-offs |
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It’s darned if
you do, and darned if you don’t. Just a few days into this year’s
hurricane season, our nation’s disaster relief agency finds itself
in the center of another embarrassing storm.
The Government Accountability Office conducted an audit of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
aid distribution and discovered many misuses of federal funds. FEMA
was found to have paid out almost $1.5 billion in fraudulent relief
claims.
According to the audit, as much as 16 percent of FEMA’s
hurricane assistance may have been obtained fraudulently. FEMA paid
for hotels stays in Hawaii, season football tickets, divorce lawyer
fees, funerals not related to these hurricanes and a sex-change
operation. The agency was duped by prison inmates as well as free
citizens. One man used a cemetery as his home address to
successfully receive benefits. Another man received rental
assistance after providing several different addresses and had all
the payments made to his East Coast home.
Some reports of fraud really strike a nerve. Like the one of a
man who spent nine weeks in a Hawaii hotel for $100 per night at
government expense while also receiving a check for more that $2,300
for a residence he didn’t live in. A second man received a check
for the same amount for a residence that turned out to be a
cemetery.
FEMA reported that out of the 2.5 million claims for
assistance, 900,000 were determined to be potential duplicates.
Since we don’t have any pictures or other identification of the con
artists, we are left to conjure up our own images. Even some of the
inspectors hired to process claims for FEMA were found to have
criminal histories ranging from drugs to embezzlement.
As ridiculous as this all seems, FEMA can’t be held solely
responsible. After Katrina hit, the agency was bombarded with
accusations of not doing enough. Then Rita delivered her punch.
The government body was left with no option but to avoid operating
in the typical, slow, bureaucratic manner and was forced to respond
in a more expeditious fashion. It did so with reckless abandon.
We, the public, from the safe perches of our dry homes
thousands of miles away, demanded FEMA conduct itself in an
ungovernment-like manner. We shouted and demanded that the
government do more and do it faster. We wanted our fellow Americans
cared for. We watched the unbelievable videos, and then mandated
all levels of governments do whatever it took. Take the money from
the war chest, raise our taxes. We didn’t care. Just do
something. We wanted our government to exceed the efforts of the
private sector. We didn’t demand that the government make sure
every waist-high-water-wading person was a true victim. We got what
we wished for.
Doing something and doing anything took precedence over doing
the right thing. This was a classic example of spending by the
people for the people.
If 84 percent of the dollars went to deserving persons, that is
a pretty good success rate for the government. Operating under dire
pressure and public scrutiny, FEMA made mistakes while responding to
the worst natural disaster we have ever faced. However, it did so
while performing a pretty fair service as far as government
standards go. Many deserving people were helped. Some deserving
may still be waiting.
If we are alarmed by the amount of fraud FEMA experienced,
imagine the fraud and misuse of the millions of dollars the public
donated. It would not be far-fetched to think that some of the con
artists tapped into the private sector funds, too. It would be
impossible to get a full accounting of how those dollars were
handled.
We were all duped to the tune of over a billion dollars. We
all should share in wiping the proverbial pie off our faces.
After that, we should leave our bibs in place while preparing
ourselves for the next storm, the report of the scandals perpetrated
by some of those involved in the clean-up and rebuilding phase.
The FEMA findings still come up short when it is compared to
some of the other government audits. Remember the audits of the
Defense Department contracts that found our government had paid for
$900 toilet seats, $600 hammers and $300 pliers? Ironically, none
of this was considered fraudulent. |
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