Investigations
March 2, 2007
Large businesses awarded million-dollar government contracts for Hurricane Katrina cleanup are bending or exploiting rules aimed at helping small companies share the work, congressional investigators said Thursday. The report by the Government Accountability Office focused on small Gulf Coast businesses that lost opportunities as limited-bid contracts were awarded to politically connected companies after the storm hit on Aug. 29, 2005. Large contractors routinely did not file reports explaining their efforts to find subcontractors, as required under federal rules, according to investigators. At other times, large companies provided figures that complied with the rules but were misleading as to how much work they were sharing, reports The Associated Press.
The National Guard and Reserves don't get enough money or equipment and are left out of important planning for national emergencies, an independent panel concluded Thursday, long after the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina exposed serious stresses on the services. The report from the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves compounds earlier criticism of the Bush administration's response to the devastating hurricane that struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005, according to The Associated Press. The administration also is still struggling to better manage the reserves nearly four years into the Iraq war.
February 27, 2007
Last September, the Small Business Administration, which provides most long-term rebuilding aid to disaster victims, accelerated its lending to homeowners and businesses in the Gulf Coast, responding to criticism that it had been slow to respond to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005. But now federal investigators are looking into accusations that in speeding up its work, the agency made thousands of loans without following its own rules to avoid fraud, reports The New York Times. Current and former employees of the agency have told investigators that agency workers failed to secure proper proof that borrowers owned the houses they were supposed to rebuild or had the required insurance.
January 24, 2007
New Orleans universities — including those in the Louisiana State University and Southern University systems — are under fire in a new report alleging too many faculty and degrees were eliminated without due process after Hurricane Katrina, reports The (Baton Rouge) Advocate. Accusations range from rushed administrative decisions to vindictive targeting of faculty members. The charges are part of a draft report from the American Association of University Professors.
January 8, 2007
Urban planners at three universities are challenging the notion that the city's 9th Ward must be rebuilt from scratch, reporting in a new survey that the predominantly black neighborhoods can be brought back largely as they existed before Hurricane Katrina flooded them, reports The Associated Press. Urban planners and students at Cornell University, Columbia University and the University of Illinois carried out the survey, which was sponsored by ACORN, a national group that works to improve poor and moderate-income neighborhoods. Researchers and structural engineers based their assessment on the inspection of about 3,000 buildings.
December 13, 2006
The leader of a nonpartisan Mississippi watchdog group is urging state ethics commissioners to decide whether three legislators are breaking the law by profiting from a contract that allows them to finalize grants for Hurricane Katrina victims. The Mississippi Press reports that Dick Johnson, president of the Mississippi affiliate of Common Cause, also says ethics commissioners should tell the public about the results of their investigation.
December 7, 2006
The U.S. Government Accountability Office's Web site has been updated to include its Dec. 6 report presented to the Senate Homeland Security Committee on fraud and waste in FEMA's hurricane relief efforts.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Disaster Relief: Continued Findings of Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
December 5, 2006
A Louisiana State Police employee and 11 others have been arrested in connection with the theft of 256 computers purchased by federal authorities after Hurricane Katrina to replace storm-damaged computers at government buildings, hospitals and other facilities, according to The Associated Press. Only 43 of the stolen Dell computers, valued at about $900 each, had been recovered as of Monday morning, police said.
December 4, 2006
A government watchdog agency is looking into two hurricane-related contracts awarded to Clearbrook LLC, a water services company based in Mobile, Ala., and expects to issue its findings and recommendations next month, a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman said. The investigation is being conducted by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FEMA's parent agency, according to spokesman James McIntyre. Late last year, the inspector general reported finding evidence of more than $3 million in overbillings on a Clearbrook contract worth up to $80.6 million to provide food and lodging to emergency responders, reports The Press-Register.
The chief and a captain of the Independence (La.) Police Department have been accused of trying to defraud the federal government in connection with work they said the department did in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. attorney's office said. The Associated Press reports that Chief Jesse Pingno and Capt. Brian Lamarca were charged Friday with one count each of theft of government property, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said. Prosecutors allege that Pingno and Lamarca submitted inflated bills for overtime and vehicle use to FEMA, which agreed to reimburse agencies for overtime and equipment use after Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005.
October 30, 2006
For now the official Hurricane Katrina death toll stands at 1,697. But Columbia University geophysicist and earth scientist John Mutter believes the number is "well in excess of 2,000," reports The Associated Press. That's because Mutter isn't just counting people who drowned in Katrina's waters or were crushed because of the storm's powerful winds. Mutter's count also would include the despondent evacuee who committed suicide, the suspected looter fatally shot, and the dialysis patient who died because the storm interrupted treatment.
October 24, 2006
In an effort to fully account for those killed by Katrina, researchers at the Earth Institute at Columbia University are compiling an online list of all Gulf Coast residents who died as a result of the hurricane. John Mutter, deputy director of institute, said the project's goal is to identify all of those who died from both direct and indirect effects of the storm, as well as due to social standing or decisions made by policy makers. According to the article posted on the institute's Web site, more than 1,250 names have been collected to date by reviewing obituaries and coroners' lists, then following up with calls to family members, churches and social service organizations to build a more comprehensive picture of each victim.
October 23, 2006
Located in a high-density area loaded with apartments, the Park at Lakeside is a prime example of property where New Orleans exiles have settled, surrounded by single-family residences where homeowners put down roots years earlier. According to the Houston Chronicle, Houston Police Department statistics show the frequency of crime at this property — and the number of times police have been called there — increased in the year after the storm. But it was not as if those numbers soared to unprecedented levels. Rather, they virtually equaled statistics recorded two years earlier — well before Hurricane Katrina struck.
October 20, 2006
Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., laid out a wide-ranging legislative plan Thursday for the federal government to deal with disasters in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, hitting hard on the need to reform the insurance industry, according to The (Biloxi) Sun Herald. The Katrina Task Force, chaired by Taylor with Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., as vice chairman, was formed by the Democratic congressional leadership to develop proposals the Democrats hoped to become a blueprint for action — especially if the Democrats take control of the House in November's elections. The report's first finding is that the relationship between the insurance companies and the National Flood Insurance Program needs to be investigated.
October 12, 2006
Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, a Republican and former majority leader, is one of thousands of homeowners on the Gulf Coast who have been fighting with their insurers over payments for damage in Hurricane Katrina. He said he inserted a provision into legislation, signed by President Bush last week, directing the Department of Homeland Security to investigate potential fraud by the insurance industry, reports The New York Times. Lott said he was also drafting legislation to challenge the industry's exemptions from antitrust laws and had asked his staff to investigate the industry's tax rates. Lott's claim for the loss of his $400,000 house in Pascagoula was rejected by State Farm.
October 5, 2006
A bill President Bush signed Wednesday directs the Homeland Security Department to investigate how insurers have handled Hurricane Katrina claims. Specifically, the inspector general's office of the department is supposed to investigate whether insurance companies "improperly attributed" hurricane damage to flooding rather than wind, reports The (Biloxi) Sun Herald. Flooding, which includes Hurricane Katrina's storm surge, is covered under the National Flood Insurance Program. Insurance company policies cover wind damage but exclude storm surge. The bill requires the inspector general's office to report conclusions of its investigation to Congress by April 1.
September 29, 2006
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. the nation's largest home and auto insurer, has lost a bid to keep five employees from being questioned about their handling of Hurricane Katrina claims, Bloomberg News reports. A federal judge in Mississippi has denied State Farm's motion for a protective order in a case filed by a homeowner whose claim was denied. Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm faces dozens of policyholder suits and state and federal investigations of its claims handling. Mississippi Atty. Gen. Jim Hood has convened a grand jury to examine whether insurers, including State Farm, pressured engineering firms to doctor damage reports.
September 14, 2006
Sure, it was a national emergency, but the Transportation Department's inspector general finds $935 an hour for a Sewer Hog a tad piggish. In a new post-Katrina audit, the inspector general's office told the Federal Highway Administration that the state of Mississippi had overspent by $772 an hour on the Sewer Hog, a high-speed swiller used to clear flooded storm drains, reports The Washington Post. Desperate to reopen U.S. 90 along the Gulf Coast, Mississippi transportation officials turned to Texas-based Garner Environmental Services Inc., exclusive operators of the Sewer Hog. State highway officials — and the feds — paid $1.7 million for services that the report said ought to have cost $294,000.
September 8, 2006
State and federal criminal justice officials united in delivering a message Thursday that they will show "zero tolerance" for illegal abuses of Louisiana's Road Home home-rebuilding grant program and that thumbprint identifications will be taken for all applicants to help stem fraud. The Times-Picayune reports that the approach is a collaborative effort among federal and state officials that encourages citizens to report fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement of money from the federally financed $10 billion pool. State Attorney General Charles Foti said the dishonest practices targeted by the measure include contractors defrauding homeowners or dishonest homeowners filing false claims for assistance.
New Orleans' coroner said Thursday he has the material he needs to present findings to a grand jury that will consider indictments against a doctor and two nurses at Memorial Medical Center accused of killing patients in the chaotic days following Hurricane Katrina. The findings will include autopsy and toxicology reports and an official classification of the four deaths involved, The Associated Press reports. Dr. Frank Minyard said he is evaluating the materials, but declined to comment on the findings or say when he would present them. Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan has said he would wait to review the findings before asking a grand jury to look into the deaths.
August 18, 2006
Frail elderly residents who were evacuated from nursing homes in Gulf Coast states suffered more than the vast majority of those who were not moved during last year's hurricanes, according to a report to be issued today by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services. The report is based on site visits and interviews with administrators and staff members at 20 nursing homes in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, all with emergency plans that meet the requirements of federal and state law. But it found that the plans had many deficiencies, especially in ensuring the safe and comfortable evacuation of residents with complex needs, reports The New York Times.
July 27, 2006
When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast last year, it revealed serious shortcomings in nursing homes' evacuation plans, reports the Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch. A year after the disaster, flaws in emergency plans still have not been fixed according to "Disaster Preparedness: Limitations in Federal Evacuation Assistance for Health Facilities Should be Addressed," a report released the Government Accountability Office. The GAO found that facility administrators faced several challenges, including deciding whether to evacuate, obtaining needed transportation and maintaining outside communication. The GAO also found that the Department of Homeland Security's National Response Plan — the basic framework for how the federal government helps states and local governments during disasters — fails to address the evacuation of nursing home residents.
See Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch article
July 21, 2006
In mid-September, Dr. Anna Maria Pou began to feel the pressure of a fledgling investigation into alleged mercy killings at New Orleans Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina. She was advised by a colleague to hire an attorney and "be forthcoming." But she first sought legal advice from lawyers working for Tenet, the health care company that supplemented her salary, reports The Times-Picayune. The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled in April that attorney-client privilege protected some parts of her conversations, but not others. Records show at least one Tenet employee was subpoenaed as a state witness and questioned about what the doctor said about her doings on Sept. 1. Court records do not show what Pou said to Tenet lawyers, but they do include some details about what was said to her. During one call, a Tenet attorney told her: "I don't represent you. I am a corporate attorney. I suggest you get your own counsel."
June 16, 2006
In the six months after Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency paid about $26,000 in relief funds to 10 applicants who used the names and Social Security numbers of inmates in the Alabama prison system, according to a top official with the Government Accountability Office. The payments, made under a program that provides post-disaster help to individuals and families, were among millions of dollars spent on claims filed in the names of more than 1,000 state and federal prisoners throughout the Gulf Coast region, according to the Press-Register.
June 14, 2006
The government doled out as much as $1.4 billion in bogus assistance to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and was hoodwinked to pay for season football tickets, a tropical vacation and even a divorce lawyer, congressional investigators have found. In the Government Accountability Office's report, prison inmates, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address, and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel were able to wrongly get taxpayer help, according to The Associated Press.
June 5, 2006
Seven months after authorities began investigating allegations that Louisiana law-enforcement officers might have gotten disaster benefits for Hurricane Katrina to which they weren't entitled, there have been no arrests or exonerations. Federal agents took over the investigation the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office started and the Baton Rouge Police Department joined in October, according to The (Baton Rogue) Advocate. The probe was prompted in part by a Baton Rouge Union of Police Local 237 memorandum, disseminated via Police Department e-mail, in September encouraging its members to apply for hurricane benefits from the American Red Cross "whether you sustained a loss or not" and refers to financial assistance debit cards for Hurricane Katrina victims as "gift cards," and insists they were a special benefit for union members.
May 30, 2006
Mississippi is withholding nearly $17 million in federal reimbursement money from its most populous coastal county while authorities probe a "multitude of discrepancies" in bills that contractors submitted for Hurricane Katrina debris removal, according to officials and documents reviewed by The Associated Press. The state stopped making payments last month to Harrison County — which contains Biloxi and Gulfport — after the Federal Emergency Management Agency began auditing the work being done to clear away storm-damaged trees. An internal FEMA report faulted county officials for paying the contractors more than $10 million without checking the work's quality or accuracy. After FEMA officials inspected more than a dozen of the roads where work was performed, its debris specialists notified the county on three occasions that the contractors were "not performing their jobs properly resulting in ineligible limbs and trees being cut and billed."
May 22, 2006
A wide range of design and construction defects in levees around New Orleans raise serious doubts that the system can withstand the pounding of another hurricane the size of Katrina, even after $3.1 billion in repairs are completed, a team of independent investigators led by the UC Berkeley civil engineering school said Sunday. The findings undermine assurances by the Bush administration and the Army Corps of Engineers that the federal levee repair program due to be completed in June will provide a higher level of protection to New Orleans, the Los Angeles Times reports. The team's 600-page report disputed most of the corps' preliminary findings about what caused the levee breaches, saying the investigators had made critical errors in their analysis. The mistakes raise concerns about whether the corps is competent to oversee public safety projects, said Raymond Seed, a professor who led the investigation.
May 19, 2006
The failure of New Orleans' levees during Hurricane Katrina reflected decades of technical and institutional problems in the Army Corps of Engineers' efforts to protect the city, according to investigators who will publish their findings Monday. The report from the University of California-Berkeley engineering department will say that the corps lacked a coherent strategy for protecting the city, the Los Angeles Times reports. The organization's technical prowess suffered when it was forced to deal with modern political realities, particularly in Louisiana, according UCB professor Bob Bea, and at the same time, the corps has suffered an erosion of its technical capabilities. The implications of the report are far-reaching because the corps is responsible for civil works projects that guard public safety in almost every corner of the nation.
May 17, 2006
The U.S. General Accounting Office is investigating the wind vs. water issue as it relates to payment of insurance claims from Hurricane Katrina, reports The (Biloxi) Sun Herald. The emphasis is on how adjusters do their jobs and the basis for their compensation, along with the various coverages a policyholder needs to protect property and the gaps in that coverage. The GAO also is looking at actions taken to minimize catastrophic damage, such as requiring that structures be elevated in flood zones. They hope to learn what works, what doesn't and how such policies are enforced, not only for hurricanes but also for earthquakes and other catastrophes.
May 16, 2006
The repair of levees and floodwalls broken or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina is on track, but the system still won't be high enough to prevent flooding by a similar storm this year, a senior Army Corps of Engineers official said Monday. "If another Katrina were to occur tomorrow, you're going to have 6 feet of water overtopping some levees,” Don Resio told members of a National Academies of Science committee reviewing the corps' investigation of the levee failures. He explained that the agency is studying how to protect the New Orleans area from hurricanes even larger than Katrina. But until Congress provides authorization to build something safer, he said, the refurbished levee system will remain susceptible to overtopping, reports The Times-Picayune.
The government won't be ready for another major disaster such as Hurricane Katrina unless the Pentagon takes a more aggressive role in the federal response, congressional investigators said Monday. Poor planning and confusion about the military's role contributed to problems after the storm struck on Aug. 29., and without immediate attention improvement is unlikely, the Government Accountability Office said. It urged the Defense Department to establish procedures to speed aircraft, troops and reconnaissance gear to hurricane-stricken areas when local and state officials are overwhelmed as well as beef up communications support to Homeland Security officials, reports The Associated Press.
May 15, 2006
Generations of New Orleanians worked for 300 years to raise a great city in the often inhospitable terrain along the banks of the Mississippi River, but it took Hurricane Katrina less than six hours to put that labor of love under water, damaging 200,000 homes and killing more than 1,200 people. The Times-Picayune reports that timelines developed by forensic engineering teams probing the failure of the hurricane protection system provide a slow-motion picture of a deadly tragedy that unfolded with surprising speed.
May 11, 2006
Federal investigators from several departments, along with state and local officials on the Gulf Coast, will spend years combing through thousands of tips for possible contracting fraud in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, witnesses told a House panel Wednesday. Already, more than 260 people — including some government employees — have been charged with a range of crimes because of investigations by the Homeland Security and Justice departments, the FBI and the Secret Service, among others, reports GovExec.com. However, additional personnel, including investigators and prosecutors, will be needed. The task force is headquartered in Baton Rouge, La., and because all departments and agencies — from federal to local levels — share databases, once allegations lead to charges, each investigator is notified to see if additional inquiries are being conducted elsewhere, Alice Fisher, chair of Justice's Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force said. Because some contracts will continue for years, the task force's effort will continue indeterminably, as will the need for continued support and personnel.
May 10, 2006
More than 100 teenagers held in detention during Hurricane Katrina endured horrific conditions in the storm's aftermath, including standing for hours in filthy floodwater, having nothing to eat and drink for three to five days, and being forced to consume the floodwaters as a result, according to a report released Tuesday. The report was prepared by the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, a group that has long advocated changes in the state's troubled juvenile system, and based on interviews with more than 60 teenagers held at the Orleans Parish Prison during the storm, as well as with prison staff members. The New York Times reports that youths who were interviewed described water rising in their darkened cells and a scramble onto top bunks to avoid it. They also said that when they were finally rescued — in some cases, after several days — they experienced dizziness and dehydration because of lack of food. One reported being "roped together" with plastic handcuffs as he and others were led out through neck-high water.
The processing of disaster loans by the Small Business Administration was slowed by a new computer system that limited the number of employees who could access the system at one time, according to a report that evaluates the performance of 22 federal agencies in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita. The 226-page report was prepared by inspectors general for the agencies and is possibly the broadest look to date at the federal bureaucratic response to last year's hurricanes, The Times-Picayune reports. The report said that the immediate federal response to Katrina was delayed and impeded because FEMA did not have contracts in place for the quick distribution of ice, water, food, tarps, transportation and travel trailers. Because the planning process did not take place before Katrina, "FEMA found itself in an untenable position and hastily entered into contracts, with little to no contract competition for disaster commodities," the report concluded. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency, awarded 64 percent of the 554 Katrina-related contracts over $500,000 without competitive bidding in the first three months after the hurricane, the report said.
May 5, 2006
While removing enough debris to cover Britain, contractors working on hurricane recovery have overbilled the government in a $63 billion operation that will get more expensive, according to a House report Thursday. Mileage claims were overstated to get extra fees, debris was mixed improperly to inflate prices and companies sent bills twice for removing the same loads, Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee found. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who compiled the report for the hearing on Hurricane Katrina contracting, also complained about layers of subcontractors that drove up costs, The Associated Press reports. A major contractor would take a large cut and pay smaller amounts to the subcontractors, down to the company with the truck hauling debris to the dump.
A batch of lucrative Gulf Coast federal travel trailer contracts has been put on hold, and other contracts could be in jeopardy, after three companies that lost a rebidding process lodged formal protests with the Government Accountability Office, according to federal attorneys handling the complaints. The protests, which the GAO must resolve within 100 calendar days, were filed in April. Since then controversy over FEMA's post-Katrina contracting processes has mounted. In recent weeks questions have surfaced about whether some of the companies that won in the rebidding comply with FEMA's explicit guidelines, The Times-Picayune reports.
May 4, 2006
Questions are being raised about new contracts that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is awarding for hurricane work along the Gulf Coast, reports National Public Radio. The agency says it wants the money — up to $3.6 billion — to go to small and disadvantaged companies in the region. But some local firms have complained that too many winners are from out of state, and they question whether all of them are qualified. Federal investigators are reviewing some of the awards. The 36 contracts are huge — up to $100 million each — to take care of thousands of trailers and mobile homes now housing hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast. FEMA decided to make the awards after it was criticized for giving no-bid contracts to four large national firms in the hectic days right after the storm.
See, hear National Public Radio report
May 3, 2006
The forces that caused two breaches in the London Avenue Canal floodwall, submerging much of New Orleans’ Gentilly neighborhood during Hurricane Katrina, were similar to those that brought down the 17th Street Canal floodwall, the team of government, academic and industry experts investigating the failures for the Army Corps of Engineers said in a report released Tuesday. The Times-Picayune reports that according to the team, rising water pressure inside the canal pushed the floodwall away from the canal, creating a space between the wall and its interior levee. The opening extended below the wall and through a narrow layer of clay silt that acted as a barrier between water in the canal and a thick layer of very porous sand; pressurized water moved down the opening into the sand and quickly traveled under the wall. The Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force does not think the disaster can be tied to any obvious engineering shortcomings, its leader said. But those involved with Team Louisiana, the state investigation into the failures, disagreed.
As state and local officials on the Gulf Coast scrambled to help panicked residents flee Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, mobile communications units developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, La. — outside the disaster area — and did not make it to the state's emergency operations center in Baton Rouge until the day after the storm hit. In addition, according to a bipartisan Senate committee report released Tuesday, most of the U.S. Forest Service's 5,000 radios — the largest civilian cache in the United States — remained unused. In the eight months since Katrina devastated Louisiana and Mississippi, much has been written about how the failure of communications hampered relief and rescue efforts, reports the Los Angeles Times. The 750-page "Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared," issued by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee after 22 hearings over seven months, added some gripping details to the familiar narrative.
April 27, 2006
With hurricane season approaching, FEMA is destined to repeat million-dollar mistakes of disaster aid waste and fraud unless it can quickly establish controls for verifying names and addresses, congressional investigators say. Gregory Kutz, managing director of special investigations for the Government Accountability Office, said he has little confidence that FEMA will be ready by June 1 to safeguard taxpayer dollars should a major disaster like Hurricane Katrina strike again, The Associated Press reports.
April 21, 2006
The government's main program for helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina rebuild their homes and businesses, operated by the Small Business Administration, has been plagued by inadequate leadership and poor planning, federal investigators have told Congress. The New York Times reports that the Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress, has found that the agency was hampered in its hurricane response by its failure to participate in disaster drills and to prepare for a disaster of the hurricane's magnitude, according to written testimony and briefings it has given congressional committees.
The government overpaid by 20 percent on a $39.5 million, no-bid Hurricane Katrina contract for portable classrooms because the Army Corps of Engineers passed up chances to negotiate a lower price, a federal audit says. The draft Government Accountability Office report on the contract with Akima Site Operations LLC, a subsidiary of an Alaskan Native-owned firm, said the government wasted at least $7.8 million. It's the latest in a series of audits detailing waste of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in the hurricane recovery effort, reports The Associated Press.
April 14, 2006
The Homeland Security Department's focus on terrorist threats left it unprepared to deal with a natural disaster on the scale of Hurricane Katrina, the agency's internal watchdog says. "After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, (Homeland Security's) prevention and preparedness for terrorism have overshadowed that for natural hazards, both in perception and in application," says a report to be released Friday by Inspector General Richard L. Skinner. The study includes 38 recommendations for improving disaster response missions by the department and its Federal Emergency Management Agency, reports The Associated Press.
April 12, 2006
Professional engineer James K. "Ken" Overstreet said his assessments of property damaged by Hurricane Katrina were altered without his permission and, in several cases, his signature was forged on documents insurance companies used to minimize or deny policyholder claims, reports The (Biloxi) Sun Herald. Overstreet worked as a contractor for S&B Infrastructure. In turn, S&B contracted with Rimkus Consulting Group Inc. to supply damage assessments to insurance companies. S&B, he said, parroted orders from Rimkus. "If they could get by with changing the wind to surge, they would do it," said Overstreet, who has talked with the state Attorney General's Office in connection with a Hurricane Katrina insurance-fraud investigation. "If you had affidavits in there where people saw houses blowing down, sometimes they'd just take those out entirely. They took out whole exhibits."
The Army Corps of Engineers "could have, but failed to, negotiate a lower price" on a $39.5 million Hurricane Katrina contract for portable classrooms in Mississippi, according to a draft government report. USA TODAY reports that the tentative finding by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, raises new questions about the no-bid award to Akima Site Operations, a subsidiary of an Alaskan native-owned firm. The draft report also confirms a USA TODAY report in September that a Mississippi business that Akima consulted while pricing the classrooms contended it would have supplied the units for roughly half the price.
April 11, 2006
Multibillion-dollar hurricane recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast are plagued by bloated costs and waste, with too many contractors getting a piece of the action, lawmakers said at a hearing on Monday. Reuters reports that Louisiana legislators frustrated by the slow pace of recovery have accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Army Corps of Engineers of spearheading a flawed rebuilding process with little transparency and contractor oversight.
April 6, 2006
Federal auditors laid out a scenario of omissions, missteps and bureaucratic nightmares that caused the loss of money and other donations sent from abroad to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, according to The Associated Press. The Government Accountability Office attributed the errors, which involved as many as eight government agencies, to the United States' lack of experience as a recipient of huge amounts of aid from others.
March 31, 2006
The American Red Cross, plagued by continuing controversy over its Hurricane Katrina relief effort, said yesterday that it is turning over to federal law enforcement officials results of its investigation into possible wrongdoing at a food and warehouse operation in New Orleans, reports The Washington Post. It also thanked volunteers who brought the matter to their attention. The embattled charity has spent much of the last six months defending how it used $2.1 billion in donations it received for victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
March 30, 2006
The FBI has launched a multifaceted investigation into post-Hurricane Katrina spending in St. Bernard Parish, examining several public contracts. Among them is a $370 million debris pickup deal that parish officials granted without bids five days after the storm and gave again to the same firm later last year despite receiving lower offers, according to interviews with competitors and a parish official who have been questioned by federal agents. The Times-Picayune reports that agents also are scrutinizing parish spending on temporary trailers, employee overtime and a no-bid contract for removal of hazardous waste and sewage, the interviews indicate.
March 29, 2006
State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. is "twisting the arms" of engineering firms to produce reports that will allow the company to deny Hurricane Katrina claims, a special assistant Mississippi attorney general said in Circuit Court Tuesday. The (Biloxi) Sun Herald reports that Tim Howard, special assistant to Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, said confidential informants have been cooperating with a grand jury investigation into fraudulent insurance practices.
March 27, 2006
An organization of civil engineers has questioned the soundness of large portions of New Orleans' levee system, warning that the city's federally designed flood walls were not built to standards stringent enough to protect a large city, reports The Washington Post. The group faulted the agency responsible for the levees, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, for adopting safety standards that were "too close to the margin" to protect human life. It also called for an urgent re-examination of the entire levee system, saying there were no assurances that the miles of concrete "I-walls" in New Orleans would hold up against even a moderate hurricane.
March 24, 2006
The American Red Cross, the largest recipient of donations after Hurricane Katrina, is investigating wide ranging accusations of impropriety among volunteers after the disaster, The New York Times reports. John F. McGuire, the interim president and chief executive of the Red Cross, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said some of the actions might have been criminal. The accusations include improper diversion of relief supplies, failure to follow required Red Cross procedures in tracking and distributing supplies, and use of felons as volunteers in the disaster area in violation of Red Cross rules.
March 21, 2006
As they near the end of their investigations into the deadly failures of New Orleans’ hurricane protection system, some of the nation’s top engineering minds have come to one unshakable conclusion: If the Army Corps of Engineers had built the region’s levees to the same standards it uses for dams, the city may well have survived Katrina without catastrophic flooding. Representatives of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the National Science Foundation said Monday that some of the problems they think played key roles in the disaster — low engineering safety standards, lack of rigorous peer review and shoddy maintenance — are simply not tolerated by the corps when building dams, but are commonplace in levee projects, reports The Times-Picayune.
A House committee said Monday it would review several post-Katrina hurricane contracts for waste and abuse, citing recent concerns about limited oversight and the haste in which they were awarded, The Associated Press reports. The Government Reform Committee will hold at least one hearing in April, said Robert White, a spokesman for the panel’s chairman, Tom Davis, R-Va. Witnesses and the specific contracts that will be scrutinized have yet to be determined, White said.
March 20, 2006
Much of the taxpayer-funded post-Hurricane Katrina recovery and reconstruction work was initially marred by the government's poor communication and planning, and a lack of competition, a series of recently released reviews has found. At the same time, a separate report by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general found that one of the most criticized contracting deals — the lease of four cruise ships for temporary housing — was "reasonable" under the circumstances, but not necessarily cost-efficient, reports The Mobile Register. One of them, the Carnival Cruise Lines’ Holiday that was based in Mobile, docked in Mobile as a shelter from mid-September through late October before moving to Pascagoula.
March 17, 2006
The government wasted millions of dollars in its award of post-Katrina Hurricane contracts for disaster relief, including at least $3 million for 4,000 beds that were never used, congressional auditors said Thursday. The Associated Press reports that the Government Accountability Office's review of 13 major contracts — many of them awarded with limited or no competition after the Aug. 29 hurricane — offers the first preliminary overview of their soundness. Waste and mismanagement were widespread due to poor planning and miscommunication, according to a five-page briefing paper. That led to money being paid for services or goods, such as housing or ice, that were never used.
March 10, 2006
Tenet Healthcare, the nation's second-largest health care company — besieged for years by allegations of Medicare fraud and overbilling taxpayers — now finds itself as the operator of a New Orleans hospital where some doctors and staff are under investigation for allegedly deliberately killing patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. CNN reports that Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti is investigating what he calls "credible" allegations that patients at Tenet’s Memorial Medical Center were euthanized in the frantic days following the storm. Foti has told CNN he has "a very good case." Tenet sent a letter to CNN on Wednesday stating that it understands from the Louisiana Attorney General's Office that it is not a target of the investigation and insists that all of its Gulf Coast hospitals, including Memorial, were prepared in advance for the hurricane.
March 9, 2006
Calling it "totally unacceptable" that nearly 2,000 people remain unaccounted for more than six months after Hurricane Katrina, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., Wednesday called on federal investigators to determine whether overly rigid governmental policies have made it harder for people to find missing family and friends. The Times-Picayune reports that some lawmakers think the Federal Emergency Management Agency, citing privacy concerns, may have contributed to the delays by refusing to provide timely information about the locations of people receiving federal disaster aid. The belief is that most of the missing people are alive.
February 21, 2006
Though U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials say they did not overpay for the tens of thousands of emergency “blue roofs” across the Gulf Coast, a review of their documents shows that a company required to compete for its contract did the work for half of what others charged. The Times-Picayune reports that in October, eight weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the corps hired Ystueta Inc., a small Alabama company, to do the same temporary roof work as larger, better-connected companies. Ystueta's price, which came after the corps sought competitive bids from minority-owned companies, was substantially less — about 58 percent lower than that of The Shaw Group, the highest-paid prime contractor assigned to the job in Louisiana, records show.
More than 200 New Orleans officers have been under investigation by the Police Department for leaving their posts during the hurricane crisis. USA TODAY reports that since the fall, the officers have been appearing, one at a time, in often emotional hearings in which many of them have pleaded for their jobs before a review panel at the department's temporary headquarters in a hotel on Bourbon Street.
Since Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana Attorney General has been investigating allegations of mercy killings in hospitals in New Orleans. National Public Radio reports that the office has witness accounts suggesting patients at Memorial Hospital may have died from lethal doses of painkillers administered by medical staff in the days following Hurricane Katrina.
See National Public Radio article
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ investigation into the flooding of New Orleans after Katrina is overlooking one of the most important causes: organizational failures, according to an outside engineering group working officially with the corps. The New York Times reports that the corps is spending about $20 million to understand the physical causes of the levee breaches that left more than 75 percent of New Orleans flooded. But the engineering group said the corps should also be looking into "discontinuity and chaos" in the creation and maintenance of the levees, according to a letter from the group to Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, the chief of the corps.
February 13, 2006
Thousands of applicants for federal emergency relief money after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita used duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers or bogus addresses, suggesting that the $2.3 billion program was a victim of extensive fraud, a congressional auditor will report today. The New York Times reports that the examination of the Expedited Assistance program determined that the Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to take even the most basic steps to confirm the identifies of about 1.4 million people who sought expedited cash assistance, leaving the program vulnerable to the "significant fraud and abuse," the Government Accountability Office will report.
About 150 criminal defendants have been charged by federal prosecutors since Katrina struck on Aug. 29, a USA TODAY review of court and Justice Department records shows. A Government Accountability Office review set for release today concluded that FEMA's disaster aid program is riddled with fraud, a finding that suggests prosecutors could eventually file thousands of additional cases.
February 6, 2006
A West Virginia company with little or no experience in disaster relief collected more than $5 million from FEMA for work it never completed on a temporary tent city in St. Bernard Parish, in a deal that this week became the subject of a criminal investigation, according to federal officials and records. The Times-Picayune reports that both the spending and the selection of the company, Lighthouse Disaster Relief, are under scrutiny by investigators with the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, FEMA and department officials said.
February 2, 2006
Responsibility for the government's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina extends widely but begins at the top of the Bush administration, which failed before the storm to name a White House, homeland security or other senior aide to take command of disaster relief, congressional investigators reported yesterday. The Washington Post reports that the blistering report by the Government Accountability Office contains the first assessments of the government's performance after Katrina. Bush aides, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and designees such as Michael D. Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency at that time, did not fill a leadership role during the hurricane, said GAO’s chief, underscoring "the immaturity of and weaknesses" of national preparations for terrorism and disaster. A spokesman for Chertoff, who has largely escaped criticism after the storm, called the GAO report "premature and unprofessional."
February 1, 2006
Despite ample warning of an impending catastrophe, the federal government bungled its response to Hurricane Katrina because of a void of leadership and confusion about who was in charge, an independent investigation ordered by Congress has found. Knight Ridder reports that the Government Accountability Office, the investigatory arm of Congress, in a preliminary report to be released today, faulted Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and his designee, former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown, for not filling a crucial "leadership role during Hurricane Katrina."
January 20, 2006
The U.S. Department of Transportation may hold the key to one of the biggest unanswered questions from Hurricane Katrina: Why did it take nearly a week for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to mobilize private buses to evacuate thousands of city residents desperately seeking rescue from the horrific conditions in the Superdome, the Convention Center and the open tarmac of Interstate 10? Reconstruction Watch reports that clues to that mystery will come in the form of an audit into a FEMA contract for hurricane evacuation services awarded in 2002 to the Federal Aviation Administration. An initial report on the audit, which was quietly opened last October by the DOT's Office of Inspector General, is nearing completion and will be released to the public soon, a DOT official said.
See Reconstruction Watch article
January 12, 2006
Federal inspectors want to suspend or limit payment on some post-Hurricane Katrina contracts to save millions of dollars they regard as potentially wasteful spending, a government review recommends. The review obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press also said work was authorized without spending limits for four housing and construction companies awarded no-bid contracts immediately after Katrina.
December 22, 2005
More than one medical professional is under scrutiny as a possible person of interest as Louisiana's attorney general investigates whether hospital workers resorted to euthanasia in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, a source familiar with the investigation has told CNN. CNN first reported in October that staff members at Memorial Medical Center had discussions about euthanizing patients after the hurricane flooded the city on Aug. 29, cutting off power and stranding hundreds of thousands of residents. Now, for the first time, Attorney General Charles Foti has told CNN that allegations of possible euthanasia at the hospital are "credible and worth investigating."
December 19, 2005
The bodies of New Orleans residents killed by Hurricane Katrina were almost as likely to be recovered from middle-class neighborhoods as from the city's poorer districts, such as the Lower 9th Ward, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of data released by the state of Louisiana. The analysis contradicts what swiftly became conventional wisdom in the days after the storm hit — that it was the city's poorest African-American residents who bore the brunt of the hurricane. Slightly more than half of the bodies were found in the city's poorer neighborhoods, with the remainder scattered throughout middle-class and even some richer districts.
A study by The New York Times of more than 260 Louisianans who died during Hurricane Katrina or its aftermath found that almost all survived the height of the storm but died in the chaos and flooding that followed. Of those who failed to heed evacuation orders, many were offered a ride or could have driven themselves out of danger — a finding that contrasts with earlier reports that victims were trapped by a lack of transportation. Most victims were 65 or older, but of those below that age, more than a quarter were ill or disabled.
December 16, 2005
In another indictment of local oversight of levees in the New Orleans area, a U.S. Senate committee heard wide-ranging testimony Thursday about lax maintenance, confusion over who was in charge of emergency repairs and even a report that the Army Corps of Engineers was blocked by a local levee official from trying to fill breaches in the London Avenue Canal. The Times-Picayune reports that a colonel who testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security said corps officials and contractors who responded to the breached levees after the hurricane found themselves locked in the middle of "turf wars" involving some of the levee districts with jurisdiction: Orleans, East Jefferson and West Jefferson.
See The Times-Picayune article
December 15, 2005
The Republican chairman of a special House investigation panel has subpoenaed the Pentagon, and is considering sending another to the White House, to get documents detailing the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, the Associated Press reports. The unusual legal action was the latest twist in the congressional inquiry of failures related to the Aug. 29 storm that killed more than 1,300 people in Gulf Coast states.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco gave no ground to Capitol Hill critics Wednesday, saying she and other state officials did all they could to save lives following Hurricane Katrina and that she feared Congress' focus on missteps was an excuse to deny more money for reconstruction, the Chicago Tribune reports. Blanco offered her first public accounting to Congress on her handling of the crisis as House and Senate negotiators wrangled over a new aid package for the states hit by the storm.
December 12, 2005
The chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina, vividly recounted in thousands of pages of documents recently released by Louisiana officials, sounded eerily familiar to members of the Sept. 11 commission, who delivered their final report this week. The Washington Post reports that emergency workers were isolated and unable to call for help for themselves or others; radios and cell phones were inoperable; and government was unable to respond to a catastrophic event.
The federal government's medical response to Katrina was bungled by a lack of supplies and poor communication, according to a congressional report based in part on interviews with doctors who responded to the hurricane. The report says that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was unable to effectively set up field hospitals and handle the medical emergencies in the Louisiana Superdome, where thousands of evacuees were stuck for days after New Orleans flooded, the Associated Press reports.
December 8, 2005
A new battle over congressional access to White House files broke out Wednesday over the response to Hurricane Katrina, according to The New York Times. Mainly at issue is how President Bush and his chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., responded when they received the first news from Louisiana and Mississippi of dire conditions.
December 1, 2005
White residents of New Orleans were just as likely to die as black residents in Hurricane Katrina's floods, death toll records show, disproving claims that the city's black residents died in disproportionate numbers. Toronto's Globe and Mail reports that of the 623 bodies identified to date from the greater New Orleans area, 293 are black and 262 are white, according to the latest numbers released this week by Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals. An analysis of areas of the predominantly black Orleans Parish and two adjacent, mostly white parishes shows that the death toll closely matched demographics. While race wasn't a key factor, age was — two-thirds of the victims were older than 60.
At least four people who sought aid as Hurricane Katrina evacuees are actually longtime Colorado residents, according to a broadcast report by Channel 7 News in Denver. According to the Associated Press, 7 News reported that relief agencies are investigating four people for receiving free rent and utilities, furniture, food, clothing and at least $600 from the American Red Cross. The four were among thousands of people seeking aid after the hurricane hit. Many evacuees didn't have IDs after they fled, and relief agencies didn't ask for them in order to expedite aid.
See article on Channel 7 News report
November 30, 2005
The floodwall on the 17th Street Canal levee in New Orleans was destined to fail long before it reached its maximum design load of 14 feet of water because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers underestimated the weak soil layers 10 to 25 feet below the levee, the state's forensic levee investigation team concluded in a report to be released this week. The Times-Picayune reports that the miscalculation was so obvious and fundamental that investigators said they "could not fathom" how the design team of engineers from the corps, local firm Eustis Engineering and the national firm Modjeski and Masters all could have missed it.
November 21, 2005
When the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross reached out helping hands after Hurricane Katrina in Jackson, Miss., tens of thousands of people grabbed on, The New York Times reports. But in giving out $62 million in aid, they both overlooked a critical fact: the storm was hardly catastrophic here, 160 miles from the coast. The only damage sustained by most of the nearly 30,000 households receiving aid was spoiled food. Though most of the money appears to have been given out legally, the U.S. Attorney's office is investigating at least 1,000 reports of fraud, including accusations that people lied about damage or where they lived. State and local officials are criticizing FEMA and the Red Cross as doling out money without safeguards, but they also blame their fellow citizens.
Storm Hit Little, but Aid Flowed to Inland City
November 17, 2005
A politician from suburban New Orleans was accused of demanding $100,000 in kickbacks from a subcontractor who won a contract from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to handle Hurricane Katrina debris, the Associated Press reports. Joseph Impastato, 33, a member of the council that oversees St. Tammany Parish, was arrested on Tuesday when he accepted two cashiers checks totaling $85,000 from a subcontractor with Omni Pinnacle, who cooperated with authorities.
http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=4129865
The federal government has suspended payments on an $80 million contract to an Alabama company that built base camps for emergency workers responding to Hurricane Katrina after auditors reported finding billing and documentation problems, according to a spokeswoman for FEMA, The Washington Post reports. The case is the first in which action was taken on apparent faults in the many contracts federal officials signed, often with little or no competition, in the rush to send aid to the Gulf Coast region.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/16/AR2005111602264.html
November 15, 2005
FEMA overestimated the cost of Hurricane Katrina-related contracts by 15 percent —$600 million — and its count of contracts by about half because of double counting, the Washington Post reports. The corrections, disclosed in a Department of Homeland Security's inspector general report, are among several findings of suspect or money-wasting FEMA recovery operations.
FEMA Overestimated Cost of Contracts After Katrina
November 14, 2005
Complaints, audits and investigations mark the post-Katrina period in Louisiana, according to the Washington Times.
Price gougers spot prey in New Orleans
November 10, 2005
Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, chairman of the House select panel investigating the response to Hurricane Katrina, threatened Wednesday to issue subpoenas for documents if the White House and other agencies don't provide them by Nov. 18. The committee made its initial request in late September and set an original due date of Oct. 4. According to a Louisiana congressman, key documents are missing — including anything involving Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and correspondence between federal agencies
House Chairman May Subpoena Katrina Papers
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten is investigating possible corruption in the design, construction, maintenance and oversight of New Orleans' failed levees, the Times-Picayune reports. "We are aware of individuals in public situations who have undisclosed conflicts of interest, and we're extremely concerned about those," the New Orleans native said. "Our interest is primarily to determine if any federal laws have been violated."
November 9, 2005
Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. has filed a lawsuit in Jefferson Parish against Metairie-based Stuart Electric Inc., alleging that the electrical contractor has been charging rates that are three times the normal amount, Baton Rouge's Advocate reports. A second Metairie contractor, B&B Electrical Services, could be taken to court if the company refuses to make restitution to its customers, Foti said. The attorney general added that Orleans Parish will be "fertile ground" for price-gougers for years and that residents can protect themselves in a number of ways — starting with refusing to pay for services with cash.
Some researchers say traditional design-analysis methods that engineers continue to use to predict the behavior of soil despite the development of new, computer-based methods do not accurately predict what floodwalls will do during a storm, the Times-Picayune reports.
Sheet-pile research surprises engineers
Federal inspector general offices have opened 92 investigations into possible misconduct in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, according to a biweekly report from the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, GovExec.com reports. There have been 23 arrests and 12 indictments as a result, according to the report.
Oversight of hurricane relief efforts keeps inspectors general busy
An announcement on the Department of Homeland Security's Web site that people have been posing as Federal Emergency Management Agency inspectors describes how to identify a real FEMA inspector.
Hurricane Victims Should Be Aware Of Fake Inspectors
November 8, 2005
Louisiana's attorney general is investigating whether poor construction or design flaws contributed to the collapse of canal floodwalls during Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' Times-Picayune reports. Charles Foti said that his office is "still in the information-gathering phase," but that if evidence of such errors is found it could open the door for legal maneuvering that might help some homeowners get their insurance companies to cover the damage.
Foti scrutinizing levee failures
An audit by the Homeland Security Department's Office of the Inspector General revealed security vulnerabilities in the central database used by FEMA that had increased increased its susceptibility to attack by hackers, Govexec.com reports.
Audit finds gaps in FEMA's database security
November 7, 2005
The House committee investigating the government's response to Hurricane Katrina is dealing with delays in having its information requests filled, the Mobile Register reports. While long-sought Alabama state records finally have arrived, the committee continues to have trouble with the Bush administration. Members of the Republican panel have accused administration officials of stonewalling, singling out the Defense Department as particularly difficult.
Congress finally gets state records on storm efforts
The U.S. Government Accountability Office released its report to the House Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina.
GAO: Contracting for Response and Recovery Efforts
November 4, 2005
USA Today looks at the failure of New Orleans' levee system. The newspaper's analysis of government documents and interviews with investigators, public officials and independent engineers shows that safety was undercut by too many agencies and private companies sharing responsibility; poor maintenance of levees; and the loss of expertise in the Army Corps of Engineers due to budget cuts. Robert Bea, one of the investigators who examined the levees for the National Science Foundation and reported findings to Congress, said each failure compounded the problem: "It's like hitting the snooze alarm on an alarm clock. You can only turn it off so many times before you get in trouble."
Many decisions led to failed levees
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Army Corps of Engineers in charge of hurricane recovery expenditures told a House committee investigating the government's slow response after Katrina that they are still not sure why some efforts have stalled and local firms are not getting a larger share of the work, and that they must do more research to learn how reconstruction and relief money is being spent, the Washington Post reports.
Katrina Recovery Officials Unsure What's Been Spent
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"
November 3, 2005
During hearings Wednesday before the House panel investigating the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, officials from companies such as Carnival Cruise Lines defended their much-assailed government contracts, the Associated Press and Reuters report. Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that some lawmakers are sharply criticizing the Bush administration for failing to submit related documents that include e-mails and other correspondence between various agencies and the White House. Also, former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown drew fire over now-released agency internal e-mail messages that some on the committee said showed him to have appeared overwhelmed in his leadership position and overly preoccupied with his image on television when the storm struck.
Winners of Katrina contracts defend deals
Carnival defends $236 million Katrina contract
Panel Still Waiting for Hurricane Katrina Papers
In a congressional hearing on post-Katrina floodwall failures, engineers who have examined the repaired levees said that they could pose a risk to residents moving back to New Orleans, according to the Associated Press. The levees might not hold if another hurricane strikes, they said, because there was little engineering guidance during repairs and low-grade materials might have been used.
Engineers Fear Levee Repairs Not Enough
The Advocate also reports that Louisiana legislators studying possible changes to state law were critical of the response times of the Louisiana National Guard and other state entities in wake of Katrina and sought answers while questioning Adjutant General Bennett C. Landreneau, who is also director of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
Guards' Katrina response questioned
November 2, 2005
Reps. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., and Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., called on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inspector general to investigate several Operation Blue Roof contracts awarded to provide temporary roofs for homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina, BizNewOrleans.com reports. News reports have suggested the government is paying $2,980 to $3,500 for plastic tarps that should cost about $300; as many as 300,000 homes in Louisiana may need roof repairs. "If contractors are excessively overpaid for the standard commercial value of their work, we've got a problem," said Thompson. "The federal government is wasting taxpayer dollars and it needs to start doing a better job of managing federal contracts."
Congressmen want investigation of 'Operation Blue Roof'
Researchers say that the engineers who designed New Orleans' failed levees did not fully consider the porousness of Louisiana's soil or make other calculations that would have pointed to the need to make them stronger, according to news reports. The National Science Foundation study researchers are scheduled to report their findings at a congressional hearing today. Among them is that the Army Corps of Engineers has lacked funding and technical resources.
Researchers say levees had design flaws
Experts: Levees had design 'omission'
November 1, 2005
The Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General released the first President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency Biweekly Interagency Homeland Security Roundtable Report on Hurricane Katrina, which includes statistics on things such as arrests, convictions, indictments and contracts.
Memorandum from the Inspector General
October 31, 2005
The Senate unanimously passed a measure Friday that calls on the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general to investigate the much-criticized $236 million FEMA contract with Carnival Cruise Lines to provide ships for emergency evacuee housing, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Carnival Ship Deal Faces Probe
October 28, 2005
Orleans Levee Board President James P. Huey resigned this week amid controversy over Katrina recovery contracts awarded to members of his wife's family and his collection of almost $100,000 in back pay before the storm hit, reports the Los Angeles Times. Huey was also involved in awarding contracts for the design and construction of two levees that failed during the hurricane.
Levee Chief Resigns Amid Nepotism Claims
October 27, 2005
Two employees of BE&K Inc., an Alabama-based subcontractor working for Halliburton at the Belle Chasse Naval Air Station near New Orleans, were found to have made false statements on job applications and were removed from the job site by the company, reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, blocked 10 workers from entering the base after it was determined that they were not properly documented.
October 25, 2005
South Dakota officials are investigating the circumstances in which a catering contractor submitted a $97,000 food bill for about 1,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees who were never brought to South Dakota, reports the Associated Press.
Inquiry persists in Katrina food billing
Florida-based debris-removal company AshBritt Inc. hired Mike Parker, a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as its lobbyist shortly before winning a $500 million Katrina cleanup contract from the Corps, reports The Hill. Corps officials deny a link between the hiring of Parker and the awarding of the contract.
Firm hired ex-Corps head before winning deal
A report by Democrats on the House Small Business Committee found that the federal government failed last year to meet congressional contracting targets for small and minority-owned business and raised concerns that they will be shut out of Gulf Coast recovery work, according to Inc. Magazine. The Small Business Administration, which oversees the contracts, has since sought public input on how to improve contracting procedures, including how to better monitor companies' small business status.
Fed Contracts Short of Small Business Targets
Congressman Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, has asked the Department of Homeland Security inspector general to investigate whether an international office-supply company is illegally presenting itself as a small business in order to win federal contracts, according to an online news release posted on Yahoo! Finance. The company, Corporate Express, received a Katrina-related printing services contract worth roughly $800,000 from FEMA.
October 24, 2005
Federal officials are investigating the circumstances surrounding the employment of at least 10 undocumented immigrants who did post-hurricane reconstruction work at the Belle Chasse Naval Air Station near New Orleans, USA Today reports. Navy spokesman Lt. j.g. Sean Robertson said the undocumented workers worked for Texas-based BMS Catastrophe and BE&K, an Alabama-based subcontractor working for Halliburton.
Illegal workers found at La. base
October 21, 2005
Hurricane Katrina has proven beneficial to other companies as well. USA Today looks at how relief work has helped the bottom lines of several companies, including Florida-based Landstar System. However, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a report this week noting that Landstar's contract with the Federal Aviation Administration to provide emergency transportation services has lacked sufficient oversight.
Storm-recovery work boosts bottom line
USA Today also reports that the Government Accountability Office is examining a no-bid $39.5 million contract to provide portable classrooms awarded to Akima Site Operations, an Alaskan firm that includes native-owned companies as its corporate parents. Critics claim the units could have been obtained at roughly half the price.
Contract for portable classrooms scrutinized
Rep. Henry Waxman has called on federal officials to explain their $236 million deal with Carnival Cruise Lines to provide three cruise ships for post-Hurricane Katrina housing, newspapers report. Waxman on Thursday asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to provide documents showing how the contract cost was calculated. Lawmakers from both parties criticized the deal as wasteful, but Waxman's critique is the first to offer specific data about the finances underlying the deal.
Lawmaker makes waves over cruise-ship housing
Congressman faults Carnival's lucrative contract for hurricane housing
October 20, 2005
Government watchdog groups believe that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is not doing an adequate job of explaining how it's handing out billions of dollars in Hurricane Katrina recovery contracts, reports the Mobile Register. For example, if members of the general public or the media want a copy of a contract, FEMA requires that they submit requests through the Freedom of Information Act—a process that at a minimum can take several weeks. FEMA also will not release any assessments of how a contractor is performing under a particular contract.
FEMA is spending billions, providing little information
Orleans Levee Board President Jim Huey's effort to steer two no-bid, post-Hurricane Katrina contracts to relatives has drawn the scrutiny of state officials, reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune. One contract calls for leasing office space from board legal consultant George Carmouche, who is a cousin of Huey's wife. The other gives a company owned by Carmouche's son the task of coordinating the salvage of boats damaged or destroyed by the hurricane at the board's two marinas. Huey claims that the two contracts were awarded under emergency conditions immediately following the storm.
October 19, 2005
The Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Transportation this week released a management advisory recommending improvements in DOT's oversight of hurricane relief funds. The preliminary assessment identifies several areas — specifically, controls over the funds used for transportation-related emergency response activities and the tracking of administrative costs such as salary, supplies and travel. The review also looks at the recording of transactions under the Federal Aviation Administration's contract with Landstar Express America Inc. to provide emergency transportation services.
Management Advisory: Accounting and Financial Reporting of Related Hurricane Costs
October 18, 2005
The Federal Procurement Data System posted its latest information on hurricane-related contract awards today. The total spent on post-Katrina contracts stands at $350 million (most FEMA and Defense Department contracts are not included). According to the database, the four companies that have received the biggest single contracts (ranging from $15.9 million to $50 million) are: Clearbrook LLC, AmeriCold Logistics LLC, Asset Group, Inc. and Motorola.
October 17, 2005
Last Friday, the Associated Press reported that $347 million was being spent with little or no competition, despite a FEMA pledge to reopen such agreements.
FEMA still spending on limited competition contracts
The New York Times dissected some $19 million in purchase-card spending for hurricane relief in its Saturday editions. Some highlights include $271,838 in total spent on medical supplies (carved up into three segments to fall below a spending cap), $382,162 spent at Office Depot stores and $223,000 for flip-flops for evacuees.
Federal Agencies Often Paid Retail for Hurricane Aid
The Shaw Group has been contracted by FEMA to run shelters in San Antonio, according to the local Express-News. The newspaper takes a look at the company's hurricane relief awards.
No-bid shelter contracts to be reopened
The Miami Herald reports that $7,500 or more in daily fees are helping to keep the Alabama Cruise Terminal in Mobile afloat. It is the home port and current location for Carnival Cruise Lines' the one of three Carnival ships housing evacuees under a $236 million contract with FEMA. The Holiday is slated to move to Mississippi, the home state for most of its estimated 1,400 passengers.
Mobile to bill FEMA for lost revenue on evacuee ship
McGraw-Hill Construction takes a look at four $100 million FEMA contracts for evacuee housing awarded to Fluor, Bechtel, Shaw Group and CH2M Hill, and reports that agency officials say FEMA "always intended to renegotiate."
FEMA Explains Early Contracts After Director's Senate Grilling
October 14, 2005
An article by the Center for Responsive Politics analyzes the political ties of some of the companies that have won the bulkiest Hurricane Katrina-related contracts. Among them:
- More than 86 percent of the federal contributions by employees of Florida-based AshBritt Environmental since 1999 have been to Republican candidates. Federal investigators are looking into a $568 million Katrina contract for debris removal awarded to the company by the Army Corps of Engineers.
- Two other companies that got big Katrina contracts, Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root and Shaw Environmental, are represented by lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, a former Bush administration FEMA director who also served as George W. Bush's gubernatorial chief of staff in Texas.
- About 60 percent of Carnival Cruise Lines employees' political contributions since 1999 have landed in Republican pockets. The company got a $236 million contract to house Katrina evacuees aboard three of its ships.
AshBritt Environmental's debris removal contract, now under scrutiny by federal investigators, comes as little surprise if one examines the company's record for getting government business. An investigation by the The Sun-Sentinel newspaper finds that Randal Perkins, a Republican Party contributor who runs the company, aggressively lobbied the office of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2004 seeking state business during the hurricane season. Records show that then-state Transportation Secretary Jose Abreu complained with the governor about AshBritt's lobbying blitz.
Aggressive lobbying by Pompano alarmed adviser to Gov. Bush
October 13, 2005
Need a Katrina contract from FEMA? Hire James Lee Witt, the agency's former head during the Clinton administration. The former federal official-turned-disaster consultant/lobbyist helped Atlanta-based AmeriCold Logistics win contracts worth up to $85 million for work related to Katrina and other 2005 storms, USA Today reports. Witt has also been hired as a consultant by clients that include the state of Louisiana.
Ex-FEMA chief's client won contract
The New York Times reports on the troubled FEMA program for housing Hurricane Katrina evacuees. As of Tuesday, nearly 600,000 people were living in hotel rooms across the country at a daily cost of $11 million paid for by the federal government. Meanwhile, FEMA has only delivered 7,308 travel trailers of the 300,000 it told Congress it would acquire for about $2 billion.
$11 Million a Day Spent on Hotels for Storm Relief
A memo offers the Department of Transportation inspector general's plan to prevent fraud and waste during Katrina's reconstruction work.
DoT Inspector General memorandum
October 12, 2005
Several of FEMA's housing initiatives—including an $8.3 million-a-day prolonged hotel stay program, the costly and polemic deal to use luxury cruise ships and a one-time disbursement plan that soon could leave evacuees short of rent money and facing eviction—have come under fire, The Washington Post reports. Meanwhile, the number of evacuees who will need extended housing assistance has gone up to about 500,000 people from the original estimate of 300,000.
Housing Aid Called Too Much, Too Little
Inspectors general from several agencies and officials from the Government Accountability Office told a House subcommittee that they will conduct several audits to prevent fraud and waste in spending on Katrina-related contracts, the Associated Press reports. The announcements came as a number of bills aimed at assuring accountability in the Gulf Coast reconstruction process also are pending in Congress.
Government auditors pledge to investigate Katrina contracts
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.
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 11, 2005
FEMA's failure to have a plan to pick up bodies of those who died after Hurricane Katrina hit and the "bureaucratic quagmire" bemoaned by the company it finally hired illustrate a pattern of breakdowns in the agency's relationship with the private sector.
Lack of Contracts Hampered FEMA
Disaster consulting firm Witt Associates is advising the governor of Louisiana on recovery efforts, helping employees of a Mississippi company whose casino was destroyed by the hurricane, and aiding New York client Allstate Corp. in pushing for the creation of a catastrophe fund that will ease the burden on disaster insurers. According to The New York Times, what has kept the consulting shop busy post-Katrina is its owner, James Lee Witt, who was director of FEMA during the Clinton administration. Witt, said to be one of the savviest, and best-connected, professionals in the country on disaster relief matters, says that he is not profiting from the devastation in the Gulf Coast.
FEMA director under Clinton profits from experience
"Follow the money" is the most obvious step in government and corporate accountability. Yet with Katrina contracts the rule may prove difficult to apply. The government databases tracking post-Katrina contracts are incomplete and sporadic, the Associated Press reports. And the law does not require the government to disclose no-bid contracts.
Tracking Katrina money is not easy
To FEMA, the $236 million contract with Carnival Cruise Line to house Katrina victims aboard ships is an example of dealing with disasters in creative ways. To critics and watchdog groups, the deal is a paradigm of waste of federal funds. Today, the Houston Chronicle reports that the shipboard stay for a family costs more than the average house value in New Orleans.
Tab for using cruise vessels as Katrina housing criticized
FEMA says it has granted about $2 billion to a million people displaced by Katrina through its "expedite assistance" program, a no-strings-attached $2,000 payment to those hurricane victims. MSNBC reports that some evacuees fell through the cracks of the system and, thus, were denied the aid. Problems range from faulty computer programs that duplicated applications to confusion regarding qualification requirements.
October 7, 2005
In today's editions, newspapers analyze the implications of the announcement by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's director that the agency will rebid Katrina-related contracts with a combined worth of $400 million that had been awarded with limited or no competition. Highlights include:
- The contracts up for rebids were awarded to four companies specializing in construction, consulting and engineering: the Shaw Group of Baton Rouge, La., Fluor Corporation of Aliso Viejo, Calif., Bechtel National of San Francisco and CH2M Hill of Denver. They have long-benefited from government contracts, and some employ lobbyists or executives with close ties to the White House and the Republican Party. The New York Times reports that the Shaw Group's lobbyist, Joe M. Allbaugh, is a former FEMA director and a friend of President Bush.
- The actual impact of the decision to rebid contracts could prove limited. FEMA doesn't plan to have competition for other Katrina deals, and the Army Corps of Engineers has not expressed intention to revise its own no-bid contracts.
- The Los Angeles Times says that FEMA Acting Director David Paulison could not answer how many contracts have been awarded with limited or no competition.
Katrina Contracts Will Be Reopened
In Shift, FEMA Will Seek Bids for Gulf Work
FEMA Reopening Its No-Bid Contracts
In Shift, FEMA Will Seek Bids for Gulf Work
FEMA Reopening Its No-Bid Contracts
Gulf Stream Coach, an Indiana company that in recent years made contributions primarily to Republican candidates, was awarded two contracts worth $521 million to provide trailers to displaced Katrina victims, Bloomberg.com reports. The contracts were won under limited competition, meaning that only up to five firms are allowed to compete for them.
Gulf Stream, Donor to Republicans, Wins Hurricane Housing Order
In remarks offered before the FEMA chief's testimony, Sen. Joseph Lieberman said that the agency's no-bid contracts have "created opportunities for fraud, waste and abuse."
Sen. Joseph Lieberman's statement
Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard L. Skinner appeared Thursday before two House committees to explain the oversight plan for Katrina expenditures.
Testimony of DHS Inspector General
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
October 6, 2005
In the midst of increasing concerns about cronyism and abusive spending, FEMA chief R. David Paulison said today that the disaster relief agency will rebid several Katrina-related contracts that were awarded with little or no competition, according to news service reports. More than 80 percent of the $1.5 billion in contracts that have been awarded by the agency so far fall into this category.
FEMA to Hold Re-Bid on Katrina Contracts
Hurricane contracts to be rebid - U.S. official
In Mississippi, MSNBC reports, the federal government is being criticized by some for overspending on no-bid contracts for portable classrooms and provisional roofs.
Critics question no-bid Katrina contracts
A Department of Homeland Security inspector general's report says that FEMA's computer systems were antiquated and slow, thus limiting the agency's effectiveness in responding to the 2004 hurricane season.
Computer systems at FEMA were lacking in 2004, says IG
October 5, 2005
The Los Angeles Times reports that a controversial six-month, $192 million government contract with Carnival Cruise Lines for post-Katrina emergency housing includes more company-friendly benefits than originally disclosed. Lawmakers from both parties have called for an investigation of the deal. Carnival has agreed to refund the government for any profits beyond those agreed to in the contract.
Under the Waterline of Cruise Ship Deal
Corporate Watch—an organization that investigates "multinationals that profit out of war, fraud, environmental and human rights abuse"—notes that some of the same well-connected firms that got the biggest contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq are now benefiting from Katrina's recovery effort.
Big, Easy Iraqi-Style Contracts Flood New Orleans
In an op-ed for The Seattle Times, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Was., says that Congress should enact a commission, similar to the Truman Commission of World War II, to ensure proper oversight of Katrina-recovery spending.
Federal relief efforts a fiscal disaster
The FBI is investigating four Red Cross contract workers who allegedly funneled Katrina relief funds to friends and relatives.
Arrests Made in Alleged Katrina Scheme
October 4, 2005
Despite government claims that it is trying to funnel contracts to small Gulf Coast companies, an investigation by The Washington Post shows that more than 90 percent of the money spent so far has gone to firms outside the states most affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Gulf Firms Losing Cleanup Contracts
Another Washington Post article reports that the company with the biggest FEMA relief contract so far, Circle B Enterprises, doesn't have a license to build manufactured housing in its home state, Georgia. The firm has been awarded a $287.5 million contract to build temporary housing for Katrina victims.
FEMA Contractor Lacks Building License
As questions on Katrina-related contracts continue to arise, FEMA is also under fire for failing to disclose how it spent taxpayers' money after four hurricanes raked Florida in 2004. Three newspapers sued the agency when it refused to provide the pay-out records for the $5.3 billion that were awarded in after-storm contracts.
Newspapers seek access to FEMA files
October 3, 2005
A U.S. News & World Reports article analyzes the challenges faced by the inspectors general of several federal agencies as they try make sense of Katrina-related contracts.
A Federal Times article looks at the government's poor reporting of Katrina contracting activity.
Katrina contracts leave incomplete, inaccurate audit trail
Newsday reports that while FEMA has spent more than $1 billion on trailers to house evacuees, only 105 Louisiana families have received the promised units:
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.
September 30, 2005
Senators want cruise ship deal explained
Knight Ridder reports that contractors, including the Shaw Group, are charging government as much as 10 times the normal rate to cover roofs with temporary tarps and perform other roofing repairs:
U.S. paying a premium to cover storm-damaged roofs
The Wall Street Journal has more on how former FEMA officials Joseph Allbaugh and James Lee Witt are using their influence on behalf of clients:
Connections Are Key to Contracts for Katrina Aid (subscription required)
September 29, 2005
Following up on yesterday's congressional hearings, several publications report on the testimony of several agency inspector generals, including that of the Department of Homeland Security's Richard Skinner, who told Congress that he was concerned over the award of several no-bid contracts.
No-Bid Contracts To Get Close Look
Katrina contracts worth billions raise worries about waste
Katrina contracts worth billions raise worries about waste
Homeland Security's chief oversight official also told representatives yesterday that the initial $15 million allotment was insufficient to police Katrina contracts and that more funds would be needed:
Homeland Security to request additional funds for Katrina oversight
The Government Accountability Office has posted testimony and highlights from yesterday's hearings on its Web site.
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
NPR, using FEMA documents, details how the unprepared agency had to scramble for supplies at taxpayer expense after Katrina struck:
FEMA Accounts Reveal Last-Minute Scramble for Supplies
Homeland Security's inspector general released a report yesterday indicating that FEMA's former head Michael Brown was warned of agency shortcomings prior to Katrina, contradicting Brown's Tuesday congressional testimony:
FEMA's Brown was warned early of shortages
Government Executive has more on FEMA's unraveling in the last few years:
FEMA's decline: an agency's slow slide from grace
Several publications report on the scramble for aid among Gulf Coast state officials, lobbyists and contractors, including Government Executive's report on Monday's Washington, D.C.-area Katrina Reconstruction Summit.
See Associated Press article: Gulf Coast governors press Congress for aid
See Wall Street Journal article: Katrina Galvanizes Lobbyists As Costly Rebuilding Begins (subscription required)
See Government Executive article: Officials fear contracting abuses in wake of Hurricane Katrina
Katrina Galvanizes Lobbyists As Costly Rebuilding Begins (subscription required)
Officials fear contracting abuses in wake of Hurricane Katrina
The Army Corps of Engineers is launching an investigation of why the levees failed:
Probe Launched of Levee Breaks in New Orleans
September 28, 2005
Few Katrina-related contracts were announced today. News coverage focused on the grilling of former Federal Emergency Management chief Michael Brown in yesterday's congressional hearings and the resignation of New Orleans' police chief. News organizations continued to look into existing contracts, especially the awarding of one worth a potential $236 million to Carnival Cruise Lines and a $568 million award to Ashbritt, client of the former firm of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. Government auditors from several agencies have promised Congress that no-bid contracts and purchases on government credit-cards will be investigated.
See Associated Press article: Government auditors to probe Katrina deals
See Washington Post article: $236 Million Cruise Ship Deal Criticized
The Washington Post looks into complaints about the Carnival award:
$236 Million Cruise Ship Deal Criticized
While visiting Miami, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff indicated that Katrina-related contracts could be canceled or payments withheld if the deals did not measure up. However, he avoided responding to questions regarding former FEMA head Michael Brown's testimony as to whether federal, state or local authorities were to blame for the poor response to Katrina.
In Miami, Chertoff sidesteps questions about response to Katrina
September 27, 2005
No-bid storm contracts prompt warnings
The Washington Post reports that FEMA plans to compensate some religious groups for the expenses incurred in Katrina relief efforts. Critics contend the action may be an unconstitutional breach of the wall between church and state.
FEMA Plans to Reimburse Faith Groups for Aid
September 26, 2005
Today's must-read Katrina-related story is the New York Times' detailed analysis of contract awards. The Times reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded more than $1 billion in contracts with little or no competition. The Homeland Security inspector general raises concerns about how some of the contracts were awarded.
Many Contracts for Storm Work Raise Questions
FEMA has allowed its reserve workforce to dwindle in favor of hiring less effective contract workers, according to the Washington Post, which also reports on Louisiana's drive to snare more federal aid:
FEMA Let Reserves Wither, Hurting Response, Some Say
Louisiana Goes After Federal Billions
September 23, 2005
While some contract awards surfaced today and yesterday, most major announcements and reporting have been shunted aside as the Gulf Coast prepares for the expected onslaught of Hurricane Rita.
The Dallas Morning News reports on FEMA's mismanagement of relief funds in a story replete with mentions and new details about contracted companies, including Circle B Enterprises, Gulfstream Coach, Integrated Express, Carnival Cruise Lines, Landstar System Inc. and Morgan Buildings, Spas & Pools:
After the storm, FEMA accused of wastefulness
The Associated Press reports that government auditors are questioning open-ended contracts to Halliburton and other subsidiaries:
Auditors targeting open-ended Katrina contracts
As a panel of House Republicans began an inquiry Thursday into what its chairman described as the ''largely abysmal'' government response to Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana's congressional delegation proposed a broad recovery plan that they estimated would cost $250 billion, The New York Times reports.
Louisiana Lawmakers Propose $250 Billion Recovery Package
September 22, 2005
Other News
USA TODAY reports that the government's top auditor of relief efforts plans at least to double the number of inspectors policing spending:
Feds try to prevent fraud as cash, contractors roll in
House Republicans are moving ahead to investigate the government's response to Katrina without Democrats, who are calling for an independent investigation, The New York Times reports.
G.O.P. in House Plans Inquiry Despite Democrats' Boycott
September 20, 2005
All's mostly quiet on the contracting front this morning, with no new announcements of major awards for Katrina recovery. Amid calls for more oversight of relief contracting, the major papers announce the appointment of FEMA's ex-acting chief financial officer, Matthew Jadacki, to run the Office for Hurricane Katrina Oversight under the Department of Homeland Security. In other news, the head of procurement for OMB, David Safavian, is arrested on charges stemming from the investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and contractors are lobbying to protect themselves from liability.
The Wall Street Journal reports that C. Henderson Consulting Inc. was awarded a contract for $5.2 million through the end of the month to provide ambulance services for FEMA, in a profile that looks at one of its subcontracters, GoldStar, one of several relief companies with checkered pasts:
Some Firms Hired in Katrina's Wake Have Checkered Pasts (subscription required)
Other News
The New York Times and the Washington Post both report on the arrest of David Safavian:
Ex-White House Aide Charged in Corruption Case
Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe
Frances Frago Townsend, the president's adviser on Homeland Security, has been appointed to head the White House investigation into its Katrina response:
Bush Aide Will Lead Hurricane Inquiry
September 19, 2005
The Associated Press reports $500,000 given to FEMA for New Orleans evacuation plans was spent on a causeway study plan instead:
The Chicago Tribune said Sunday that tight-lipped companies make it difficult to know who's doing what in the rebuilding effort:
Firms head for New Orleans to profit from cleanup, restoration
The Times gives a brief history lesson in government purchasing abuses:
Here Is Your New Federal Credit Card. Here Is Your New Purchase Limit
The Journal also reports on efforts by Louisiana officials to shore up the state's notorious business image by policing the awarding of government contracts:
Louisiana Seeks To Escape Image As a Bad Spender (subscription required)
September 16, 2005
The Department of Homeland Security has named a "special inspector general" to handle Hurricane Katrina relief, Sen. Susan Collins told FOX News on Thursday. But the Maine Republican who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said she didn't think the gesture goes far enough.
Katrina Inspector General Appointed
CounterPunch revisits Service Corporation International, parent of body-removal contractor Kenyon International, which settled a $100 million lawsuit several years ago for dumping bodies:
Corpse-Abusing Company Gets FEMA Contract
The Washington Post takes a look at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' "handshake deals" with Bertucci Construction, Fordice Construction and the Shaw Group.
Government Tries to Balance Scrutiny, Speed
Scrutiny of the increase in the ceiling on government credit-cards is covered by the AP:
Government's Katrina credit cards draw scrutiny
In older news, USA Today explored controversy behind the Shaw and Fluor contract awards: