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Grassley Releases Recommendation on Accounting for Katrina Dollars

Date: Oct. 4, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: National Security Government Budget and Spending


Grassley Releases Recommendation on Accounting for Katrina Dollars

Sen. Chuck Grassley today released a recommendation that says the best model to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in Hurricane Katrina spending is the current federal inspectors general structure augmented by additional resources.

In a letter, the vice-chairmen of the President's Council on Integrity (PCIE) and Efficiency and Executive Council on Integrity and Efficiency (ECIE) said the inspector general community had established a Homeland Security working group to handle to audit and inspection matters, and named Richard Skinner, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, as
chairman several months before Hurricane Katrina . The working group model was based on the experiences of the PCIE and ECIE in coordinating oversight of multiple agencies following 9/11.

The vice-chairmen write that the Homeland Security working group has put 300 auditors, investigators and inspectors to work on Katrina operations and that a Hurricane Katrina fraud hotline is yielding results.

The PCIE and ECIE vice-chairmen also say that an additional $30 million would be needed for oversight efforts in addition to the $15 million already appropriated to the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security. An additional $5 million for inspectors general who are reviewing federal spending on hurricane assistance is included in a bipartisan health and welfare relief bill for hurricane victims (S.1716) sponsored by Grassley and Sen. Max Baucus. That legislation is pending in the Senate.

"This letter documents the work that has begun by the inspectors general to safeguard federal dollars directed to hurricane relief," Grassley said. "Congress should continue watching the watchdogs to make sure the system that's set up works as well as intended. Any dollar lost to waste, fraud and abuse is a dollar that doesn't go to assist a hurricane victim or rebuild destroyed areas."

http://finance.senate.gov/press/Gpress/2005/prg100405.pdf

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