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Director defends FEMA amid hurricane-fed frustrations

TALLAHASSEE - Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown on Thursday acknowledged criticism about fraud, slow payments to counties and inspectors with criminal records doing damage assessments after last year's hurricanes. He defended the agency on all counts.

While the agency received high praise during and immediately after the four hurricanes that struck Florida, it now faces questions from Congress on several issues and complaints from counties still waiting for FEMA checks.

The frustration has risen to the point where U.S. Rep. Mark Foley and Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida filed bills that would force FEMA to speed up payments to counties and cover the cost of removing debris from private property. "I recognize that members of the Hill have to do what they have to do," Brown said in an interview with the Associated Press, while noting that FEMA already has a policy of sending half of anticipated county claims to the state up front. At that point counties can ask the state for the money while claims are being reviewed.

"We have ways of trying to minimize that frustration because I recognize that the counties are put in very difficult financial straits," Brown said.

But the rest of the payments will be much slower in coming.

"When you're starting to pay for things like reimbursing counties for debris removal, reimbursing counties for the destruction of highways, or schools or other public facilities, those involve billions of dollars and we will be much more cautious about making certain that all the requirements are met, that you're doing it properly," Brown said.

He also said too much has been made out of fraud allegations.

"We ought to put fraud in perspective," Brown said. "In every disaster in this country, there is someone who tries to cheat the federal government, cheat the taxpayers. We have found on average that our fraud rate is anywhere from 2 to 3 percent for the overall disaster. Right now in Florida we are way below that."

He also defended the agency against reports in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that people with criminal records were hired by FEMA contractors to conduct home inspections.

"We received no complaints from anyone in Florida that Joe Blow came to my house and tried to steal something from me or tried to do any sort of criminal activity," Brown said.

[Last modified April 29, 2005, 00:33:10]