FEMA IT Misuse Blamed in Fraudulent Payments

FCW.com reports on FEMA’s use of IT for allocating funds after Katrina. While some IT checks helped weed fraud, others didn’t quite work out. Case in point, alas, GIS.

The agency’s poor use of IT included over-reliance in some cases and failure to use it at all in others. In one instance that GAO documented, FEMA relied on geospatial mapping to support a claim of $4,706 in rental assistance to undercover GAO inspectors who listed their address as a vacant lot. In that case, FEMA could have sent someone to the site to verify the authenticity of the claim, GAO concluded.

I supposed this is simply a reminder that technology in and of itself is not good or bad, but can be used well or misused. FEMA condemned this and other errors and has stated its new system will prevent them in the future.