single-entry cf

1. A.      Introduction

In the year 2005, in the month of August, Americans living in the southern part of the United States awoke to face the devastating effects caused by the hurricane Katrina. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reported that close to one thousand and eight hundred people died during this disaster. Many deaths occurred mainly due to the storm surge, disease, hunger and the extensive flooding that took place. Hurricane Katrina was considered then to be the costliest and the most devastating natural disasters in the history of the United States. Although the United States had experienced other incidents of hurricanes before, hurricane Katrina was the stronger and caused extensive damage to property which according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, was estimated to be about eighty-one billion US dollars (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d, Para 1-4).

There are forty- nine (49) reported incidents of hurricanes in the history of the United States; these incidents have been reported in a period spanning one hundred and fifty- three years (from 1853-2004) .Of the recorded incidents, only eighteen incidents were categorized as major storms by the National Weather Service. Hurricanes which have been associated with costly damages were reported in the United States during the following years; 1928, 1935, 1969 and 1992 (Palser, 2007, p.16)

Following the damage caused by the hurricane Katrina, many efforts were directed towards assisting people who had been affected by the hurricane to regain their before the storm.Relief efforts by the federal agencies and humanitarian organization included but were not limited to the following activities; health care services, locating and notifying family members on the situation of their members, financial help, help with child services, evacuation, provision of shelter, replacement of important documents ,rebuilding of infrastructure that was destroyed during the storm and other services as well (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d,official website).

While referring to the extent of damage caused by the hurricane, Goldman et.al, 2007, p.17 explains that there were many agencies which were responding to the emergency situation with the immediate need being to give support to the evacuation, search and efforts meant to rescue people who found themselves trapped in the flooded areas and who inadvertently did not have good communication links. To strengthen the organizational ability of being able to help people affected by hurricane Katrina, the US federal government is said to have spent close to nineteen billion dollars through emergency contracting in the affected areas (Johnson, 2006, p.1), part of these money is alleged to have been mismanaged (close to two billion dollars) and the disaster efforts could not adequately help the affected people.

Sometime later after the disaster, newspaper reports started to appear alleging mismanagement of the disaster funds, elaborate schemes to illegally get the money and wastage of the relief funds, a task force named the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task was later created in September, 2005 by the then attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales. The task force was created to prevent, investigate and deal with fraudulent cases which were linked to the disaster brought about by hurricane Katrina (Streib, 2006, p.94).

1. Statement of problem.

            The emergency situation created by the occurrence of hurricane Katrina created a compelling need for federal agencies and humanitarian organizations to offer various forms of help to restore the lives of those affected by the disaster. The much needed help also created many opportunities for fraudulent activities to be carried out. This can partly be explained by the fact that due to the overwhelming response to help in the disaster relief efforts, there were large sums of money which were availed by the government and other sources which was directed to relief activities and programs along the Gulf Coast.Streib 2006, p.94, notes that the fraud involved in the relief efforts during the hurricane Katrina disaster involved different parties and took various forms.

 At some point it was alleged that government officials working in state agencies like the Reference list

Bingham, G.S.2009. Examples of fraud in emergency contracting. Accessed 7.7.2010 from

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U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.n.d. Hurricane Katrina.Accesed 7.7.2010 from http://www.hhs.gov/disasters/emergency/naturaldisasters/hurricanes/katrina/index.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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