Community Checkup

How backwards is this?

Some Katrina survivors are being asked to pay back government grant money that was in excess of what they were supposed to have received. The contractor for managing the grants is looking to hire companies to get the loot:

The contractor, ICF International of Fairfax, Va., revealed the extent of the overpayments when it issued a March 11 request for bids from companies willing to handle “approximately 1,000 to 5,000 cases that will necessitate collection effort.”

The bid invitation said: “The average amount to be collected is estimated to be approximately $35,000, but in some cases may be as high as $100,000 to $150,000.”

The biggest grant amount allowed by the Road Home program is $150,000, so ICF apparently believes it paid some recipients the maximum when they should not have received a penny. If ICF’s highest estimate of 5,000 collection cases - overpaid by an average of $35,000 - proves to be true, that means applicants will have to pay back a total of $175 million. [Source: PhillyInquirer]

One perspective, from a strictly legal standpoint, might be that nothing is wrong here–that the Katrina survivors should have read and followed the contract associated with their grants. But there are so many things fundamentally wrong about this that have nothing to do with contracts. First, the $175 million they’re going after from the survivors is chump change in comparison to the trillions we are estimated to end up paying for the Iraq war. This continues to be a statement about who and what we truly value. Then there’s the fact that one third of the Katina survivors still have not received their grants. Could it be that there is more interest in getting the excess money back than administering that which was promised?

But the bottom line here is that these folks, many of whom lost everything including loved ones, represent some of the most vulnerable we should be concerned about and caring for. And this isn’t what care and concern looks like.

What say you?