At a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee where the report was
released, chairman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and ranking
member Joeseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said “the reports
of waste, mismanagement and outright fraud are
particularly disturbing,” and said they must be faced
“head-on to preserve public confidence,” in the program.
The program distributed millions to Miami-Dade even
though the county’s emergency operations center
reported minimal damage and debris from Hurricane Francis.
The senators in a joint statement that the committee
“documented fraudulent claims, wasteful spending, and
ineffective government management in FEMA’s response”
to the hurricanes, and that the issues raised in the
report “are relevant to future disaster-relief efforts
in all regions of our country.”
The senators called error rates revealed after the
award unacceptable and called for changes in FEMA’s
processes and regulations. After aid was distributed,
quality control inspections revealed a 37 percent rate
of error on personal property awards, an 18.5 percent
error rate determining if homes were unsafe, and an
11.5 percent error rate for rental assistance and
relocation.
“FEMA failed to properly perform required damage
assessments and properly oversee its inspection process.
The public needs to know that fraud will be prosecuted
and that we will not tolerate waste or abuse,” the
senators said.
