FEMA Says State Must Pay $30 Million

Louisiana officials are stumped. Do officials in our Office of Homeland Security owe the federal government more than 30 million dollars? The feds sent the bill Wednesday for money paid out in the form of grants for a federal flood buyout program. Three former Louisiana Homeland Security employees who oversaw the program are currently under federal indictment.

The state says we don't owe the money back. But they say if we do, the individual parishes the grants went to will have to pay back the money.

Mark Smith, Dept. of Homeland Security said, "Would I call it a public relations nightmare? Yes."

It was just a matter of time before the bill was sent to the state following its handling of federal FEMA flood buyout monies. The government says more than 30 million was misspent by the state through the Office of Emergency Preparedness between 1997 and 2002. Three former high level employees of the office are under federal indictment for charges related to the handling of those FEMA funds.

"Really its not that the money was misspent here or the money was misspent there," says Smith. "It's going to be, in a lot of the cases, a matter of improper paperwork."

According to the letter, the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Office of Emergency Preparedness failed to properly assess project eligibility, rank properties consistently with state priorities, and verify that projects met the criteria for priority funding.

"We'll have to look at each individual parish and possibly go back to them for money."

According to Joanne Moreau, Director of the East Baton Rouge Parish Homeland Security, East Baton Rouge will be asked to pony up 3.6 million dollars. Moreau says she has requested documentation from the state to prove what they owe.

East Baton Rouge Parish applied for their own grants and did not enlist the help of private companies like Aegis Innovative Solutions. Aegis contracted with many of the parishes who will be asked to pay back the money. Aegis is owned by former Office of Emergency Preparedness employees.

Moreau says she believes the letter from FEMA clearly asks the state to re-pay that money. In other words, it's a state issue and not a parish by parish issue. We also asked the state Homeland Security Office to show us the documentation the federal government used to come up with that 30 million dollar figure. They agreed to show us, but not until Thursday.