Homeowner Grant Program Funds Misspent

Natalie Chandler reports massive waste in the program developed to help Coast families return home:

Airfare for employees' significant others, limousine rental agency services and last-minute plane tickets topping $1,400 are among taxpayer-funded items purchased by the Maryland-based company hired to manage a Hurricane Katrina grant program.
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Travel expenses aren't the only things being questioned. Federal auditors also recently found problems with Reznick's grant calculations, saying the state allowed it to deduct unnecessary costs from some homeowners flooded in the storm. "As a result, the homeowners did not receive the maximum benefits from the program," according to an audit issued last month by Housing and Urban Development's inspector general's office.

Barbour farmed out the contracts with little oversight and you can see the result. Also from the article is Gene Taylor's reaction:

Said 4th District U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor of Bay St. Louis, a Democrat: "To spend that money on anything other than getting people back in their houses, or the realistic cost of doing the administrative work to make it happen, any luxuries or unnecessary trips are unacceptable."

Through a press release the Democratic State Party Chairman Wayne Dowdy had this to say:

Haley Barbour must be held responsible for this reprehensible action. As the state's chief executive officer, he has direct control over the Mississippi Development Authority by appointing its executive director and, therefore, is responsible for the pathetic way the Homeowners Grant Program has been managed.
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Haley Barbour loves to boast across the state about all the money he's brought to Mississippi post-Katrina, about how we have a chance to rebuild the Coast as never before. But how can Haley boast when we hear reports about the pathetically managed Homeowners Grant program? And how can he boast when hundreds of people continue to live in FEMA trailers almost two years after the storm?

Democrats backed oversight when the program was started, but Barbour's Republican allies in the Senate blocked H1318. Three Republican have directly financially benefited including Republicans Sen. Tommy Robertson, Rep. Jim Beckett, and Rep. Jim Simpson. On homeowner grants Barbour and the Republicans want no oversight. One has to wonder why.

The Clarion Ledger Article