Profiting from Katrina - The Center for Public Integrity

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Center Reports

November 8, 2005

USA Today examines the federal government's relationship with Titan Co., a defense contractor that has been awarded more than $550,000 in Katrina-related contracts by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Critics point to a list of scandals involving Titan: two federal lawsuits that allege it acted negligently in hiring and supervising an employee suspected of abusing Abu Ghraib prisoners; a settlement of charges that it was involved in an international bribery scheme; and a federal inspector general report that concluded that it was overpaid by $229 million for a military contract because it subcontracted "substantially all of the work." A FEMA spokeswoman said Titan's Hurricane Katrina awards "didn't raise any red flags" because the firm has not been barred from receiving government work.

Company under fire won Katrina contracts

Titan's Profile in Center's "Windfalls of War"

Titan's Profile in Center's "Outsourcing the Pentagon"

USA Today also reports that a Government Accountability Office official's testimony before a House panel last week supports the contention that the price of portable classrooms in a $39.5 million no-bid contract awarded to Akima Site Operations by the Army Corps of Engineers in Mississippi was inflated.

Official questions cost of Katrina contract

Akima's Profile on Taxpayers for Common Sense Web site

November 4, 2005

Fluor Corp., a recipient of large no-bid contracts for Hurricane Katrina cleanup, will pay $12.5 million to settle allegations that the company knowingly overbilled the Department of Energy and Defense from 1995 to 1998, the Corporate Crime Reporter reports.

Fluor to Pay $12.5 Million to Settle False Claims Act Lawsuit

Center's profile of Fluor Corp. from "Windfalls of War"

Center's profile of Fluor Corp. from "Outsourcing the Pentagon"

October 12, 2005

The Department of Defense yesterday posted details of two contracts awarded to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Services. The $43 million in competitive contracts include reconstruction, reproofing and debris removal work at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pascagoula, NAS Gulfport, Stennis Space Center and other Navy installations in the Southeast. The Pentagon also awarded a $20 million, no-bid contract to Louisiana-based Science and Engineering Associates to provide technical service support to critical Navy programs.

Defense Department Contracts

The Center for Public Integrity profiled Kellogg Brown & Root and its longstanding government ties in the 2004 project "Windfalls of War."

Kellogg Brown & Root background

October 7, 2005

Top government officials who managed U.S. reconstruction projects in Iraq have been hired by some of the giant construction companies that got deals in Iraq and now are profiting from Katrina, Reuters says. Some have obtained positions with Shaw Group Inc., Bechtel National Inc., and Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. The Center for Public Integrity did an exhaustive investigation of Iraq and Afghanistan reconstruction contracts in its 2004 project Windfalls of War.

Katrina work goes to officials who led Iraq effort

Windfalls of War

October 3, 2005

The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., reports that Rep. Bennie Thompson, R-Miss., will call for a federal investigation on the $40 million no-bid contract for the construction of temporary classrooms awarded to a Akima Site Operations, politically connected Alaska Native company. Its parent, NANA Regional Corp., was profiled in the Center for Public Integrity's report "Outsourcing the Pentagon."

Congressman wants probe of no-bid contract

"Outsourcing the Pentagon" profile on NANA Regional Corp.

The Boston Herald reported Friday that Bechtel National was awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to provide temporary housing to hurricane victims in Mississippi:

Dig contractor Bechtel gets big FEMA deal

Center for Public Integrity reports also show that the Bechtel Group is one of the Pentagon's top contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan:

Windfalls of War
Outsourcing the Pentagon

September 30, 2005

Rep. Bennie Thompson says that the government is paying more than twice what it should for temporary classrooms in a $39.5 million no-bid contract awarded under special provisions to Akima Site Operations, and Alaska Native company that is a subsidiary of NANA Regional Corp. NANA Regional Corp. and its subsidiary NANA Pacific LLC have been profiled in previous Center for Public Integrity reports.

Mississippi Classroom Contract Questioned

Alaska firm gets Gulf rebuilding job

Well Connected in the States

September 29, 2005

Koch Membrane Systems, a subsidiary of conservative patron Koch Industries, is helping FEMA and the military purify water in Biloxi, Miss. The Center for Public Integrity's reporting on Koch and the oil industry was among the winners announced at the Society of Environmental Journalists award ceremony last night.

Gulf storms put Koch's water filters to the test

Center for Public Integrity "Politics of Oil" report: Koch's Low Profile Belies Political Power

Winners: SEJ 4th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment

Koch's Low Profile Belies Political Power

Winners: SEJ 4th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment

September 12, 2005

Reports by Reuters, the Houston Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post among others, have begun to focus on another angle of the still-unfolding story of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath: the awarding of government contracts for one of the biggest reconstruction efforts in American history. In the last few years, the Center for Public Integrity has done several significant reports on government contracts; below are links to Web pages from our projects The Windfalls of War and Outsourcing the Pentagon that offer data on some of the major companies that have received the first federal contracts in connection with the Gulf Coast disaster. On Oct. 30, 2003, the Center also did a report looking at federal contracting and outsourcing:

www.publicintegrity.org/wow/report.aspx?aid=68

www.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=6

www.publicintegrity.org/pns/db.aspx?act=cinfo&coid=094878980

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