Financial Controls and Disaster Relief: Oxymoron or Realistic Objective?

Controls and accountability mechanisms help to ensure that resources are used appropriately. Nevertheless, during a catastrophic disaster, decision makers struggle with the tension between implementing controls and accountability mechanisms and the demand for rapid response and recovery assistance. On one hand, quick action could not occur due to procedures that required extensive, time-consuming processes, delaying the delivery of vital supplies and other assistance. On the other hand, FEMA's processes assisting disaster victims left the federal government vulnerable to fraud and the abuse of expedited assistance payments.