Administration of Emergency Flood Grants for the Midwestern Flood of 1993

This review was made to determine whether grants totaling $8.2 million provided relief to flood victims in accordance with guidelines established by a Midwest Flood Health and Medical Task Force. Our final report points out that awards totaling $4.2 million were not granted for purposes consistent with Task Force guidelines. Two grantees whose clinics were undamaged by the flood received funds for new construction and acquisition of facilities that would not be operational until years after the disaster. One grantee received funds to provide primary health care services, however, no services were provided for nearly one year after the grant award was made. We recommended that the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) review the justification used to fund these awards, and if the justification is not consistent with legislative intent of the emergency appropriation, other appropriate funding should be sought for these projects and the flood funds returned to the Treasury. We also recommended that HRSA develop procedures for objectively evaluating applications against established criteria. The HRSA generally concurred with our recommendations.