Federal, state investigations already under way
U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, is asking a federal inspector general to investigate allegations of fraud and abuse in Louisiana's $750 million house lifting grant program. The program, called the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, is run by the state Office of Community Development using federal money from FEMA.
Jeremy Patterson, a home elevation contractor, was suspended from the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program on Friday. He went to the program office at the New Orleans lakefront Monday to try and get answers. He was asked to leave by office manager Lacy Allen, right.Richmond sent his letter to Charles Edwards, the acting inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA.
In the letter, Richmond lays out a series of reports in The Times-Picayune over the summer that exposed the abuses in the program. The list culminates with "reports of troubling behavior by contractors that have resulted in the State suspending seven firms from the program," referring to the private sting operation that caught contractors allegedly doctoring data and forgiving loans to help a homeowner collect extra grant money.
"While I had hoped that these problems could have been resolved at the state level," Richmond writes, "it is now clear to me that such a wide variety of improprieties necessitates federal scrutiny."
The state, for its part, announced Monday that it was launching a new anti-fraud task force, teaming with the state police and the Department of Health and Hospitals, which offers expertise in using computer analysis to weed out fraud in such programs as Medicaid. State Police Col. Mike Edmonson said Tuesday that he's already consulted with the federal Homeland Security inspector general's office about coordinating anti-fraud investigations.
And it's clear that federal authorities, separate from the acknowledged state investigations, have already been scrutinizing the program. Several contractors have acknowledged being questioned by federal agents as allegations heated up over the last several months.