The Federal Emergency Management Agency is tasked with coordinating disaster responses.

It's become clear in recent months that behind the scenes, the agency is something of a disaster itself — prioritizing "equity" as its top strategic goal; blowing hundreds of millions of dollars on an emergency food and shelter program for illegal aliens while American citizens struggled; allegedly giving tens of millions of dollars to luxury hotels to house illegal aliens; reportedly denying aid to Americans on the basis of political affiliation; and bungling disaster relief.

A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General revealed that the agency's mismanagement of funds and resources under Biden-nominated FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell is possibly worse than previously imagined.

According to DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari — not among the IGs that President Donald Trump has so far chosen to fire — FEMA mismanaged nearly $10 billion in COVID-19 emergency protective measures grants during fiscal years 2020 through 2023.

The Jan. 30 report indicated the waste at FEMA was the result in part of the agency "not following established requirements when delivering Public Assistance funding." When it came to a medical staffing grant, for example, "FEMA did not validate the reasonableness of cost estimates provided by the state before obligating funds."

FEMA must assess the reasonableness of the estimated costs by reviewing historical documentation, using average area costs, or relying on published cost-estimated services. The report claimed, however, that during the pandemic, the agency didn't bother with proper validation and relied instead on "one sheet of paper with no itemized costs" that "was not prepared by a licensed Professional Engineer or cost-estimated professional" when approving a grant valued at over $1.1 billion.

'FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.'

"FEMA's inadequate validation of pre-award costs for the state's medical staffing project contributed to $1.5 billion in funds that could have been put to better use," said the report. "Had the $1.5 billion not been over-obligated to this project, it could have been transferred to the Disaster Relief Fund and made available to provide funding for other disasters."

The inspector general noted further that the agency also didn't bother validating the costs submitted for reimbursement on completed projects before shoveling over taxpayer money.

Analysts with the IG's office apparently selected a random sample of 20 large projects totaling $58 million "from a universe of 8,420 projects ranging from $131,100 through $100 and reviewed pre-award controls." They ultimately found that six of the 20 completed projects, totaling roughly $33 million, lacked the required documentation to validate "completion of the work and actual costs incurred before project award and reimbursement."

FEMA officials were evidently throwing around money without proper confirmation of whether the services were being rendered to eligible participants, whether the jobs were actually getting done, and who if anybody was doing them.

The agency's apparent difficulty properly vetting funding to a single state, which the OIG did not name in the report, led to $8.1 billion of spending that the inspector general is now questioning.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas complained on Sept. 30 that "FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and what is imminent."

It appears that haphazard project approvals and other forms of mismanagement emptied the agency's coffers and put Americans in danger.

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