FEMA's debacles include 'Girls Gone Wild' videos

Seattle Times: The biggest visual indictment of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had been the acres of unused trailers outside of New Orleans that cost taxpayers millions in storage fees.
Now comes the discovery that FEMA has been bilked for up to $1.4 billion in improper expenses paid out after Hurricane Katrina. Is there no end to this agency's debacles?
Government aid inevitably gets wasted to some degree. But it boggles the mind to imagine how FEMA shelled out so much money without even the most basic controls. Some of the money erroneously paid out was spent on things like tropical vacations, football season tickets, "Girls Gone Wild" videos and pricey champagne.
Bogus identities
People fraudulently obtained aid by using bogus identities and fabricated disaster stories. One person was granted $139,000 after using 13 Social Security numbers on 13 different aid applications. Others listed cemetery addresses or post-office boxes as examples of damaged residences.
The Government Accountability Office, which uncovered the fraud, ran its own fake applications and collected $6,000 in aid checks!
FEMA officials defend themselves by noting that they were under public fire to send aid quickly to those in desperate need. True, but swiftness and a strong dose of accuracy should go together for the agency charged with handling emergencies.
About $17 million has already been recovered by simply asking people who were overpaid by FEMA to refund the money. About 1,500 cases have also been identified as willful fraud.
The agency has also instituted the kinds of controls it ought to have had all along, including eliminating debit cards and installing an Internet registration system designed to reject duplicate applications.
Those safeguards should have an impact. Severe storms and flooding has resulted in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York being declared federal disaster zones.
Once again, FEMA takes center stage. It ought to turn in a better performance.