Just one more FEMA screw-up

The General Accountability Office (GAO) issued another report last month on FEMA's response re Katrina and Rita. This one was on the Expedited Assistance program. Granted there was a heck of a lot of pressure to get money to people and there are always thieves among us. But you'd think that even with this pressure FEMA could have done better. Some examples cited by GAO:

• Almost half of those who received payment via debit cards also received a duplicate payment either by check or electronic transfer.
• GAO visited 200 damaged properties. Eighty of them were either vacant lots or non-existent apartments.
• FEMA's automated system often identified possibly fraudulent registrations. The manual process used to review these registrations ignored the warning.