Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Disaster Relief

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed homes and displaced millions of individuals. In the wake of these natural disasters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responded to the need to provide aid quickly through the Individuals and Households Program (IHP), which provides housing assistance, real and personal property assistance, and for other immediate, emergency needs. As of February 2006, FEMA made 2.6 million payments totaling over $6 billion.

This study provides an estimate of improper and potentially fraudulent payments through February 2006 related to certain aspects of the disaster registrations, identifies whether improper and potentially fraudulent payments were made to registrants who were incarcerated at the time of the disaster, identifies whether FEMA improperly provided registrants with rental assistance payments at the same time it was paying for their lodging at hotels, and reviews FEMA’s accountability over debit cards and controls over proper debit card usage.