It appears that FEMA may have purchased manufactured and modular homes in excess… and is now paying to store and maintain them.

By using no-bid contracts, we do increase our vulnerability for waste, and that’s what we want to take a close look at.

Information management is a recurring problem that requires a long-term solution.

However, Katrina costs will be far greater than those costs associated with the federal response/recovery for 9/11,

At the maximum occupancy level, this equates to $416,000 per evacuee. We understand that FEMA terminated the lease and returned the improved property to the Joint Powers Authority.

I think they really wanted to help us, … But they’re overwhelmed and understaffed.

It’s inevitable. You almost have to expect that.

We’ve been looking at all the contracts from day one. One concern is whether you are getting the fair market value. The second is whether the people we are giving contracts to are the best...

We just want to let her know we exist, … That we’re waiting for her.

Most, if not all, of these people down there were trying to do the right thing. They were under a lot of pressure, and they took a lot of shortcuts that may have resulted in...

Even though she grew up there, we don’t think she had anyone to show her the city.

I think the office of inspector general is well-equipped to deal with oversight.

The focus is going to be on prevention, … Let’s don’t wait for the problem to raise its ugly head. Let’s make sure controls are in place to reduce the opportunity for any waste, fraud...

[Fraud calls] are just starting to flow in these last two weeks, … We’re getting a lot of calls. It’s increasing daily.

In my experience, I don’t care where you’re at, whether you’re in New York or Florida, California or Louisiana, after disasters, when you have this kind of money being pumped into the community this fast,...

This was all done in such an expedited manner everyone more or less didn’t go by the normal standards,

They’ve been sitting exposed to the elements for months. Some of the trailers that we inspected are actually warping, have lost wheels. And some have been cannibalized, parts taken out, and we don’t even know...

Despite federal laws and requirement, the CIO is not a member of the senior management team with authority to strategically manage department-wide technology assets and programs.

If you go into some of these small towns down the coast of Mississippi, there is no accounting system.

There was lack of communication and there was lack of coordination.

When you do something like this, you do increase the vulnerability for fraud, plain waste, abuse and mismanagement. We are very apprehensive about what we are seeing so far.