Katrina foreign aid unused

This is for people who believe that government has a use for providing charity...

It seems that a total of $166million was given by foreign governments to the US government as aid for Katrina. Also, a lot of gifts in kind were given. What is the result?

Here are the quotes--

And it wasn’t just cash that poured in. Other countries sent planeloads of tents, blankets, and Meals Ready to Eat, but the United States was ill-prepared to handle the largesse while residents were still trying to evacuate. Some offers were declined. But oftentimes the government accepted supplies like bandages, food, and cots and then allowed them to sit for months in Arkansas warehouses. According to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released in April, FEMA and the State Department paid tens of thousands of dollars in warehouse storage fees in the months after Katrina to house unused supplies from foreign countries.

The donated cash met a different fate. By late October, the State Department had allocated $66 million of the $126 million in international assistance to FEMA, which then granted it to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), the nonprofit aid arm of the United Methodist Church. With the funds, UMCOR established Katrina Aid Today, a consortium of nine national aid agencies dedicated to case-management work for Katrina evacuees. But to date, only $13 million has actually been disbursed, and it has been allocated almost exclusively to salaries and training for case workers, not to evacuees.

As for the rest of the funds, some $60 million languished for more than six months in a non-interest-bearing account at the U.S. Treasury. Had the money been placed in Treasury securities, the GAO report notes, their value would have increased by nearly $1 million by the end of February. Instead, inflation meant the funds actually decreased in value as the government stalled. In mid-March, the Department of State finally agreed to sign over the remainder to the Department of Education for teacher salaries, books, and new school buildings along the Gulf Coast. But the Department of Education has yet to spend a dime. In response to inquiries from Foreign Policy, a spokesperson said that an announcement will be made this week regarding how the department intends to use the money.

Now, some countries adopted the smarter approach. Here is an example --

A smarter approach, perhaps, would have been to bypass the federal government altogether. That’s what Qatar did in May when it granted $60 million directly to New Orleans universities, hospitals, and charities. With its portion of the cash, Children’s Hospital of New Orleans has already renovated two clinics and picked up the medical bills for hundreds of local children. Perhaps Gulf Coast residents should rid themselves of their reconstruction czar and appoint a reconstruction emir in his place.

The original article is here Money for Nothing

Thanks to mises.org for the link.

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