Remember this when the New Orleans bills start to hit


Waste from 9-11 Recovery
The New York Sun started a series on Sunday chronicling spending from the 9-11 recovery effort.

For 9/11, longstanding disaster aid rules were turned on their head.

Take the $8.8 billion dispensed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency — 40% of the overall aid package.

Under the Stafford Act, which governs federal disaster relief, victims typically first apply to the Small Business Administration for loans. If rejected, applications are generally made to FEMA. That rule was dropped in New York.

Additionally, for the first time, FEMA paid 100% of claims across the board, instead of splitting it 75%-25% with the locality. Also, instead of reimbursing all qualified claims, for the first time FEMA aid was capped — at $8.8 billion. Since the money "had" to be used, the rules had to be changed — such as the deadline extensions and loosened eligibility requirements.

Because of the need for immediate work orders, city procurement rules went out the window; there were many no-bid contracts.

And considering the size of the aid package — the same as the estimated 2003 gross domestic product of Afghanistan — there was little aggressive monitoring or oversight for fraud and misappropriation.

There was no incentive to do so, either. The local political effort focused on getting every penny of Bush's promise, getting the money faster, extending application deadlines, expanding access and easing eligibility requirements.

The next two days are here and here. Worth reading.

Government recovery money is seldom spent well.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Tue - December 6, 2005 at 05:30 AM  Tag


 ◊  ◊   ◊  ◊ 

Random selections from NeoWayland's library


Pagan Vigil "Because LIBERTY demands more than just black or white"
© 2005 - 2009 All Rights Reserved