With FEMA, A Promise Made Is A Promise Broken
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has reneged on its promise to re-open four multi-million dollar no-bid contracts relative to Hurricane Katrina work.
Last year, Acting FEMA Director R. David Paulison had promised to re-open the contracts, initially awarded to companies like Bechtel Corporation, among others.
Now comes word that FEMA will NOT re-open the contracts. In fact, they've extended them to the current awardees, citing good performance as the reason.
But federal auditors found that three of the contracts have wasted significant amounts of money.
Also of note is that many of these companies are politically connected (what a shocker)!
The federal government has also been slow in awarding contracts to minority-owned businesses. Normally, the government sets aside approximately 5% of contracts for minority owned businesses. But to date, only 2.4% of the $5.1 billion awarded, has gone to minority-owned companies.
This means that many of the people primarily affected by Katrina, are being left out of the opportunity to help re-build their own city.
They were abandoned by their government before and after the storm.
