The Emergency Assistance Services Program (EASP) recently reduced its cash grants, which tide over people who have lost their jobs or homes—money the program might have had were it not for incompetence. According to a city audit released last week, the District failed to collect nearly 50 percent—or $2 million worth—of the money owed to EASP by the federal government for fiscal 1992, ’93, and ’94. “Considering the bleak budget conditions facing the District, the Department of Human Services [which runs EASP] can ill afford to allow millions of dollars of potential federal reimbursements to go uncollected for extended periods,” writes Auditor Russell Smith. He also notes that EASP spent more than its appropriated budget in fiscal ’94, and that it currently supplements the income of “those who already participate in other entitlement programs.” Smith urges Human Services to revise the program’s guidelines, decrease the maximum amount of the grants, and establish a six-month residency requirement.