High-functioning democracy

Remember FEMA? Yeah, they're still bad. GAO:

To conduct our investigation, we analyzed FEMA’s issuance of task orders under the contracts and the costs associated with the most expensive
contract line items from June 2006 through January 2007. In addition, we selected and tested a representative sample of payments made to the MD contractors for monthly preventative maintenance inspections from June 2006 to January 2007. To prepare our case studies, we reviewed specific costs associated with a nonrepresentative selection of 3 group sites and 1 commercial site in Mississippi. We did not conduct a comprehensive evaluation of whether FEMA adhered to its own solicitation requirements and other laws or regulations when awarding the 10 MD and 5 GSM contracts. However, our interviews with FEMA officials, contractor personnel, and confidential informants led us to identify potentially improper activity associated with the award process. To further investigate this activity, we reviewed and compared the contract proposals, total bid prices, line item bids, and government estimates for work. We conducted our work from October 2006 to September 2007. We conducted our investigative work in accordance with the standards prescribed by the Presidents Council on Integrity and Efficiency and conducted our audit work in accordance with generally accepted
government auditing standards.

Overall, we estimate that FEMA’s ineffective management resulted in about $30 million4 in wasteful and improper or potentially fraudulent payments to the contractors from June 2006 through January 2007 and likely led to millions more in unnecessary spending beyond this period. We found that (1) FEMA’s failure to issue task orders under the MD contracts in a cost-effective manner led to as much as $16 million in waste and (2) breakdowns in FEMA’s invoice review process led to an estimated $16 million in improper or potentially fraudulent payments. Furthermore, our case studies demonstrate how FEMA’s placement of travel trailers at group and commercial sites can lead to excessive costs, when compared to trailers placed at private sites. We also found evidence of potentially improper activity related to FEMA’s contract award process.