$3.6B in FEMA awards probed

[Maddy McCall]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON — FEMA exposed taxpayers to significant waste - and possibly violated federal law - by awarding $3.6 billion worth of Hurricane Katrina contracts to companies with poor credit histories and bad paperwork, investigators say.

The new report by the Homeland Security Department's office of the inspector general, set to be released later this week, examines the propriety of 36 trailer contracts designated for small and local businesses in the stricken Gulf Coast region following the 2005 storm.

It found a haphazard competitive bidding process in which the winning contract prices were both unreasonably low and high. Moreover, FEMA did not take adequate legal steps to ensure that companies were small and locally operated, resulting in a questionable contract award to a large firm with ties to the Republican Party.

"Based on our analysis, we concluded that FEMA contracting officials exposed the agency to an unacceptable level of risk," according to the report by the office of inspector general Richard Skinner.


Read more: http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/NEWS/704230333

---

Is there anything this administration has done that is NOT corrupt?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. "Is there anything this administration has done that is NOT corrupt?"

No.

Can you make the next one a little more challenging? ;-)

[maddezmom]

2. to answer your question

NO nothing

[aquart]

3. Do they mean Halliburton? Or Blackwater?

[rumpel]

4. wasn't Rove put in charge of reconstruction? n/t

[sam sarrha]

5. need to check the bakeries in N.Dakota, petting zoos ..Kick back campaign contributions?? it looks

like they gave a little money to a lot of reThugs so they could give the maximum campaign contribution, they gave thousands of little Home Land Security grants to a lot of republicans all over the place.. so they could get a lot of it back into the party..ill bet a paycheck on that

[maddezmom]

6. among the winners of the contracts, PRI-DJI donated over $930,000 to mostly GOP candidates

In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, FEMA handed out lucrative no-bid contracts for cleanup work to large, politically connected firms such as Shaw Group Inc., Bechtel Group Inc., CH2M Hill Companies Ltd., and Fluor Corp.

After heavy criticism, FEMA Director David Paulison pledged to put those large contracts out to bid again. He ultimately reopened only a portion, awarding 36 contracts that the agency said would be prioritized for small and local businesses.

Among the winners was joint venture PRI-DJI, which received $400 million worth of contracts. That prompted complaints from small and locally operated firms that said they were unfairly shut out. DJI stands for Del-Jen Inc., a subsidiary of Fluor, which has donated more than $930,000 to mostly GOP candidates since 2000.

"It's not what you know, what your expertise is. I don't even believe it's got much to do with price. It's who you know," said Ken Edmonds, owner of River Parish RV Inc. in Louisiana, which was rejected for a contract. In the audit, investigators said PRI-DJI was eligible because DJI had partnered with PRI, a minority-owned firm based in San Diego, under a federal mentoring program.

more:http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/04/23/homeland_audit_says_katrina_contracts_were_mismanaged/

[tanyev]

7. Nothing "questionable" about it.

That contract award was probably one of the few instances where they knew exactly what they were doing.

[tanyev]

8. Self-delete; dupe.

[dubyaD40web]

9. Clear brush?

Dunno.

[intheflow]

10. K&R

Not that this should be surprising to anyone on DU, but I want to raise up any information that reminds the rest of the country that we're still FUBAR down here.

:kick:

[Divernan]

11. FEMA normally housed 3-5,000 per year: Katrina was largest migration (1 million) in US history.

FEMA boss says agency should get out of housing business
Director wants HUD to handle duty
Snips from article:

www.news-press.com (search for FEMA)
capital bureau
Originally posted on April 19, 2007

TALLAHASSEE — FEMA does not do housing well, and it is time to stop trying, Administrator R. David Paulison said Wednesday as he passed through hurricane-struck Florida. "FEMA should not be in the housing business" the director said, saying he is involved in efforts to shift that responsibility "to an agency that really does housing" — the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Providing temporary and long-term shelter to victims of disasters is a chronic shortcoming of the nation's emergency response agency, and delays and shortages were chronic during Florida's 2004 and 2005 hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans overwhelmed FEMA's housing resources with "the largest migration of people in this country," Paulison said. "FEMA was not designed to deal with that many people. We normally house 3,000 to 5,000 people a year.

"We ended up housing over 1 million people without a good plan in place." While asking HUD to take on housing responsibilities, FEMA has set up systems capable of accepting 200,000 applications for emergency aid per day, and conducting as many as 20,000 home inspections per day. "If there's ever disaster like that (Hurricane Katrina) in this country, you'll see a different FEMA. You'll see a FEMA that's much more nimble, much more responsive, much more leaning forward and much less bureaucratic."
**********************
Companion regional plans also are under way. Paulison praised Florida's plan as "outstanding."
Paulison was in Tallahassee on Wednesday to be honored by the Miami-Dade County delegation, holding its annual lobbying day at the Legislature. Years before being running the federal agency, Paulison was the Miami-Dade fire chief. He met briefly Wednesday with Gov. Charlie Crist, who appeared to announce their intentions to work together. Crist praised FEMA's response to state requests after tornadoes earlier this year, lauding Paulison's "quick response ... a complete turnaround to how FEMA used to respond."

[Javaman]

12. Think of our gov't as Filene's basement...

and the repukes as the mad shoppers.

[Eugene]

13. Heckofajob but was it really "staggering...incompetence?"

It looks more like mismanagement by design for things
to work out so well for those with GOP connections.

K & R