The study of NYS Superstorm Sandy points to the need for an improved disaster recovery process

ALBANY – An audit by the state comptroller has found some “significant weaknesses” in how the state oversaw the spending of federal aid to help repair homes and redevelop land ravaged by severe storms more than a decade ago Sandy, Lee and Irene.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on Thursday called for solutions to improve the accountability and effectiveness of spending billions of dollars in public money to make coastal areas in particular more resilient to the next devastating storms.

The audit did not identify any specific fraud, abuse or problems resulting from the procedural deficiencies, but auditors said the way the state managed the disaster recovery programs increased the risk of these problems.

The state has spent $4.5 billion in federal funds to help pay for repairs and rehabilitation for eligible property owners, and to purchase and redevelop some seriously damaged properties that could be used for affordable housing. The funding was also used to better protect New York from future severe storms.

The audit examined state actions during and after Hurricane Irene in August 2011, Tropical Storm Lee a month later, and Superstorm Sandy, which hit Long Island hard in October 2012.

“Our auditors identified gaps in the oversight of the programs,” DiNapoli said Thursday. “Homes and community regeneration must ensure that money only goes to eligible properties and that there are no inappropriate or duplicate payments. It also needs to better monitor projects to detect delays so that the need to recover money can be minimized. These issues must be resolved so that we are better prepared for future recovery efforts.”

The vast majority of federal funding was primarily intended for use during and after Sandy.

Among the audit’s findings:

• “There were indications” that two of the 11 properties acquired by the state at a cost of $189,540 “may not have been eligible for financing.”
• Among the cases in the sample, $60,288 in potentially duplicate payments were made to New Yorkers, and one recovery aid applicant was overpaid by $6,000.
• Six of the 11 properties acquired by the state were undeveloped or completed late when the audit was underway this year.

“Together, these weaknesses increase the likelihood that funds will not be used for disaster recovery program purposes and could represent a financial loss to the state and reduced funding opportunities for other potential applicants,” the audit said.

DiNapoli’s audit of the Homes and Community Renewal agency, which administers disaster recovery programs, looked at 41 cases to track the use of government money to recover from sea waves, flooding, hurricane winds, extended power outages and other attacks from the superstorms.

The Homes and Community Renewal agency defended the programs’ approach to “quickly deploy funds for the critical repair, reconstruction, or acquisition for redevelopment or conversion to open space of damaged homes in disaster-declared regions of New York State.” The agency said most of the issues in the audit were addressed last year, many of them before the agency was presented with a draft of the audit in the summer, and that improvements are continuing.

Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He’s been covering Albany since 2001.