Disaster Profiteering on the American Gulf Coast Revealed (CorpWatch)

[elehhhhna]

Key Report Findings:

A familiar (and disturbing) cast of characters: Many of the same "disaster profiteers" and government agencies that mishandled the reconstruction of Afghanistan and Iraq are responsible for the failure of "reconstruction" of the Gulf Coast region. The Army Corps, Bechtel and Halliburton are using the very same "contract vehicles" in the Gulf Coast as they did in Afghanistan and Iraq. These are "indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity" open-ended "contingency" contracts that are being abused by the contractors on the Gulf Coast to squeeze out local companies. These are also "cost-plus" contracts that allow them to collect a profit on everything they spend, which is an incentive to overspend.

The report lays out these astronomical charges in details. Using non-local companies means that the job is expensive and often botched, as happened in Iraq. Bechtel's reconstruction of schools in Iraq in the summer of 2003 was a case study in unfinished work and overcharging. Also in the summer of 2006, the Pentagon canceled a Bechtel contract to build a hospital in Basra because it was hopelessly behind schedule and had tripled in price. It is perhaps less than surprising that the person in charge of the Army Corps of Engineers today, Lieutenant General Carl A. Strock, is the very man who was in charge of the Halliburton contracts in Iraq. The Army Corps has a less than impressive record in the Mississippi Delta; they are after all, the agency that masterminded the system of levees that have ruined the Delta and failed one year ago to protect area residents.

Abusive "contracting pyramids" that leave the actual subcontractors doing the work with only a tiny amount of the money paid by the federal government. AshBritt's $500 million contract for debris removal amounted to about $23 for every cubic yard of debris removed, according to an NBC News investigation. Ashbritt, in turn hired C&B Enterprises, which was paid $9 per cubic yard. That company hired Amlee Transportation, which was paid $8 per cubic yard. Amlee hired Chris Hessler Inc, which received $7 per cubic yard. Hessler, in turn, hired Les Nirdlinger, a debris hauler from New Jersey, who was paid $3 per cubic yard - less than the cost of doing the work. "Operation Blue Roof" another example; FEMA paid $6.6 million to All American Poly to make the blue tarps that cover so many storm-damaged roofs in the worst-hit areas. FEMA then gave the tarps and the contracts to install them to Shaw Group and Simon Roofing and Sheetmetal of Ohio. Those companies then subcontracted much of the actual work, and those subcontractors further subcontracted. The final cost for each tarp averaged out to almost $2,500 per tarp - almost enough to pay for a new roof in many cases - even tough the tarps were only designed to last 3 months! The workers who actually tacked the tarp onto the roof (a two-hour job) were making closer to minimum wage.
Local companies go unpaid - or are frozen out of the process altogether. Even if a contract is awarded to a small local business, that does not necessarily mean the company ever got paid. Coastal Environments, Inc. (CEI) was paid $150,000 on a $3.1 million contract. In another case, the Army Corps of Engineers awarded a no-bid $39.5 million contract to Alaska-based Akima Site Operations, a firm based more than 3,500 miles from where Katrina made landfall, to provide 450 portable classrooms to Mississippi. A local businessman suing the federal government and Akima has filed papers claiming that he submitted a bid at half the price but was rejected by the Corps of Engineers.

Much much more here:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081706R.shtml

[Selatius]

1. This is what you get when you combine corporate and state power

You get a government that caters to the corporate powers...at your expense.

[elehhhhna]

2. That is why I'm proposing the formation of the Administration AUDIT Corps

Tell the kids to major in Forensic Accounting. It will be an excellent career opportunity for years to come.

[rubberducky]

3. That is exactly what I was thinking!!

We need a dept. to follow the money and have it open to public scrutiny. Not to give reports a year from now but, to constantly update it on a web page. After all is said and done the money they are playing with is OUR money. I would love to see someone like Bobby Kennedy, Jr. in charge.

[rodeodance]

4. pass this to all. The Repug Gov. Cult of Corruption at work.

[elehhhhna]

5. ya got me thinking. read this please:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1937248&mesg_id=1937248