The Interagency Fraud Enforcement Task Force is a great step. But DHS must be included to investigate diverted FEMA funds.
Across the country, state leaders are making a concerted effort to ensure the correct use of taxpayer dollars, following Vice President Vance’s commitment to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.
So, when the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico announced the creation of the Interagency Fraud Enforcement Task Force, Frontiers of Freedom supported the move.
However, a closer look at the list of stakeholders shows one entity conspicuously missing: the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.
Why is this such an egregious exclusion?
Through FEMA, DHS has obligated more than $19 billion in Public Assistance grants for Hurricane Maria repairs alone. And right now, mayors across the island are levying construction taxes on FEMA-backed projects that take away from emergency recovery.
As the FOMB has noted, these taxes raise the cost of emergency recovery on the island, delay the restoration of essential services, and burden American taxpayers.
Yet FEMA continues sending money to the island. This week alone, it provided more than $76 million in grants, including to a municipality that surcharges the federal government for construction work.
While the total amount of public funds lost to these construction taxes remains unknown, political analyst Luis Dávila Colón estimates that over the past nine years it could reach “hundreds of millions of dollars.”
The Interagency Fraud Enforcement Task Force was created to root out exactly this kind of waste, fraud and abuse. We urge it to include DHS-OIG and to investigate the ongoing theft of federal funds through construction taxes.
Read the full letter below:
