Katrina: Gov't Failure, Private Fraud

House Report Blasts Federal Response To Hurricane; Over 200 Accused Of Scams

(CBS/AP) 
"I want to be clear, as the secretary of homeland security I am accountable and accept responsibility to the performance of the entire department, good and bad," Chertoff said.

"I also have the responsibility to fix what went wrong," he added.

Chertoff suggested that time was of the essence, noting that June 1 looms as the start of another hurricane season.

He pledged "a hard, honest look at what we can do to improve our response capability."

Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee issued their own recommendations Sunday for changing FEMA, including having the agency's director report directly to the president during major disasters. They also said the director should be an experienced emergency manager.

White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend also was expected to discuss parts of her upcoming review about the federal response to Katrina.

In its rush to provide Katrina disaster aid, the Federal Emergency Management Agency wasted millions of dollars and overpaid for hotel rooms, including $438-a-day lodging in New York City, government investigators said Monday.

Meanwhile, two other reports released by the Government Accountability Office and the Homeland Security Department's office of inspector general detail a series of accounting flaws, fraud or mismanagement in their initial review of how $85 billion in federal aid is being spent.

The two audits found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under FEMA's emergency cash assistance program — which included the $2,000 debit cards given to evacuees — were based on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names.

Thousands of additional dollars appear to have been squandered on hotel rooms for evacuees that were paid at retail rather than the contractor's lower estimated cost. They included $438 rooms in New York City and beachfront condominiums in Panama City, Fla., at $375 a night, according to the audits.

The two audits were released by the Senate Homeland Security Committee as the panel wrapped up its investigation into the federal government's preparation and response to the disaster.

The FEMA changes follow the results of a House inquiry that found unheeded warnings, poor planning and apathy in recognizing the scope of Katrina's destruction led to the slow emergency response from the White House down to local parishes.

The House GOP report said the federal government's response to Katrina was marked by "fecklessness, flailing and organizational paralysis."

The House findings mark the first of two congressional inquiries and a White House review of the storm response expected over the next six weeks.

Among the planned changes at FEMA:

Tracking trucks carrying food, water, ice, blankets and other emergency supplies by satellite to ensure they arrive at disaster sites quickly and with enough equipment.

Sending FEMA employees to emergency shelters and other temporary housing venues to register victims for aid, instead of relying on victims to register by phone or the Internet.

Creating a database of already-approved private contracting firms from disaster regions to remove debris and provide services faster.

Creating "reconnaissance teams" to report disaster conditions to Homeland Security and FEMA operation centers within hours, and improving communication channels to ensure the information quickly gets to the president and Cabinet-level officials.

Hiring up to 1,500 new full-time employees as year-round coordinators.

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©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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