"This is bureaucracy at its worse, and the citizens of the Gulf Coast are suffering for it."
- Rep. Henry Waxman
Today we have another example of complete idiocy on behalf of our government when facing the worst natural disaster of our time (so far). Not only does this article detail the confusion regarding accepting foreign donations & aid, it mentioned other problems I had not previously known.
So about that audit thingy...
Federal auditors on Thursday laid out a scenario of omissions, missteps and bureaucratic nightmares that caused a loss of money and other donations sent from abroad to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Lawmakers at a congressional hearing on the subject reacted harshly to a Government Accountability Office report that attributed the errors, which involved as many as eight government agencies, to the United States' lack of experience as a recipient of huge amounts of aid from others.
Quotes from both sides down in the subcockle region of the diary...
First, chairman Rep. Tom Davis (R, VA-11):
(It) appears that policies and procedures were lacking, simply because no one in the federal government anticipated needing or receiving this assistance.
Really now, Tom?
Of course noone expected a category 4, let alone 5, hurricane to hit New Orleans.
Of course noone expected the levies to break.
Of course noone expected the poor to be stranded.
Of course no Republican would expect other countries to come to our aid. We're 'Merica! We're John Wayne tough!
(Except in politics, where they cry and piss and moan when you point out the honest, real facts)
Definitely noone expected Rep. Davis to have a moment of honesty:
"It does no good to be offered money, or water, or food, or potentially lifesaving medical supplies if we don't get those donations into the hands of the people who need them."
Good work Tom, you get the "Really? No fucking shit." Award, but at least it was a-political and honest. And really fucking obvious.
And the results of your short-sighted administration?
With plans lacking for dealing with such a large-scale influx, legal restrictions kicked in that required almost half the cash to be held in accounts that paid no interest, resulting in a loss of almost $1 million and diminished buying power for eventual hurricane relief.
Now, to Rep. Henry Waxman (D, CA-30):
The Bush Administration's mishandling of international donations for Hurricane Katrina comes ont he heels of its mismanagement of international donations to rebuild Iraq... (cites examples of Iraq money mismanagement) ...But the top World Health Organization official for Iraq found the lack of progress "shocking," and said, "That's affecting people's expectations and people's trust, I must say."
The same problems are recurring in the Gulf Coast, except the funds being squandered are for Katrina relief and it is our citizens who are suffering. The State Department and National Security Council, which have no experience administering domestic programs, have been controlling how international donations will be distributed. The Agency for International Development, which does have experience in rebuilding, seemsw to have been pushed to the sidelines, just as it was in Iraq.
When I first began to read this statement, I thought he went off the reservation by bringing Iraq into this. But when he loops it back into Katrina with an ease that makes a jedi nervous, it pulls together that the gross incompentence of this administration is ensuring Iraq is a failed state and allowing New Orleans to become a failed city.
The new entry into the "What did they screw up NOW?" list regarding Katrina was tacked on near the end:
Typical of the misadventures was the failure to enlist government quality-control experts from the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration.
This resulted in importation of medical items and military food packages that should not have been allowed into the country; because they were, the government had to pay for storing them. The auditors were told of one shipment of military meals-ready-to-eat, however, that was delivered directly to a U.S. base whose personnel distributed the unknowingly banned MREs to hurricane victims.
Now, can someone please tell me why
our MREs would be
banned from
our country? And if they are banned from the US of A, then where are they not banned, and what are the legal differences that makes them legal there but not here?
US Army MREs banned from US.
What an amazing new world we have created.