FEMA halts $30M in Katrina reimbursements to Miss.

JACKSON, Miss. — The Federal Emergency Management Agency has halted $29.9 million in reimbursements to the state of Mississippi for retrofitting homes after Hurricane Katrina, saying the state has failed to provide documentation, overspent and appears to have had lax oversight over the program.

The Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General released a report that states that the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has not been able to provide documentation for around $30.5 million that was paid to contractors to retrofit 985 homes on the Gulf Coast. The original program was approved to retrofit 2,000 homes for $29.9 million.

The OIG has recommended, and FEMA agreed, that the federal government "deobligate" the money until Mississippi can reconcile what it claims it spent. If Mississippi can't convince the feds its spending was proper, the state could be on the hook for all or part of the spending.

MEMA Director Lee Smithson released a statement Thursday stressing that he was not over the agency when the mismanagement occurred.

"We are confident that most of the money will be deemed eligible by FEMA and the remaining funds will be recovered by the state," he said.

Gov. Phil Bryant in a statement Thursday said he agrees with Smithson the spending "will be eligible for reimbursement" and "the state will aggressively seek to recover the remainder of the funds."

"I appreciate director Smithson taking swift action upon discovering the issues outlined in the report," Bryant said. He noted that the employees responsible for the retrofit program for the period OIG examined are no longer at MEMA.

The OIG report says that although Mississippi became aware of improper oversight of the program as early as December 2014, it did not take any action to address the problem until February of this year.

State guidelines and general accounting practices require that more than one person have oversight of similar programs. The state Department of Financial Administration gave oversight to one employee, who came with the program to MEMA when the program was moved over in 2012.

Follow Therese Apel on Twitter: @TRex21