Pathetic Statement on Human Nature

GAO: TV, iPods part of post-Katrina waste
KATRINA AID MISMANAGEMENT

FEMA also could not establish that 750 debit cards worth $1.5 million even went to Katrina victims, the auditors said. Among the items purchased with the cards:• an all-inclusive, one-week Caribbean vacation in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic.
• five season tickets to New Orleans Saints professional football games.
• adult erotica products in Houston and Girls Gone Wild videos in Santa Monica, Calif.
• Dom Perignon champagne and other alcoholic beverages in San Antonio.
• a divorce lawyer's services in Houston.
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Department employees, including Secret Service agents and FEMA workers, wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on iPods, beer-making equipment, a flat-screen TV, dog booties and clothing after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast last fall, according to government investigators.

The General Accountability Office (GAO) will report today that the government also cannot account for more than 100 laptop computers and a dozen boats bought after the storm with government purchase cards given to employees.

"This new GAO investigation uncovers yet more disturbing evidence of wasted taxpayer dollars following Hurricane Katrina," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee. The Homeland Security Department's "lack of the most basic safeguards to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the purchase-card program left the door wide open for these abuses."

The alleged waste is minor compared with the roughly $1.4 billion investigators say the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) lost to waste and fraud after Katrina, but it highlights accountability problems at the department.

The GAO cited poor oversight of the 10,000 employees who have purchase cards for business expenses. After Katrina, the $2,500 spending limit was raised to $250,000.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the abuse was relegated to "a few bad apples" and the waste represented a "very small fraction" of the department's purchases.
Among the GAO's findings:
• The Secret Service spent more than $7,000 on 54 iPods and could not prove they were needed for government work.
• A FEMA employee bought a 63-inch plasma-screen TV that was found unopened in its box six months later.
• FEMA spent $68,000 on 2,000 sets of dog booties to protect search-and-rescue dogs' paws as they walked through debris — but the dogs wouldn't wear them.
• A Coast Guard employee bought a $230 beer-brewing kit for parties. The Coast Guard claimed the kit saved money and gave the GAO a "detailed five-year analysis" to support its claim. The GAO cited "a dubious need for the government to brew its own alcohol."