Post-Katrina contracts

Not a lot of them are going to Mississippi firms, so it appears:  Contracts sparse for firms in Mississippi: State low on FEMA's list with only 80 contracts worth more than $100K by Ana Radelat Jackson Clarion-Ledger 11/27/05.  Redalat reports:

Few large companies with FEMA contracts are based in Mississippi. A Gannett News Service analysis of the 258 post-hurricane contracts FEMA has awarded Mississippi companies as of Nov. 18 showed only about 80 were worth more than $100,000.

Of the $3.7 billion FEMA has spent on contracts related to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, about $129 million - or 3.45 percent - went to Mississippi companies, according to the analysis of all 2,009 post-hurricane FEMA contracts.

The other storm-hit states, Louisiana and Alabama, haven't fared much better.

Businesses in Louisiana received 5.37 percent and Alabama 5.15 percent of FEMA contract money.

Are there some states that are doing relatively better on the contracts?  Well, in the age of Bush/DeLay crony capitalism, that answer is easy to guess:

Companies in Georgia, Indiana and Texas have received the most FEMA money.

Maryland and Virginia - which are near Washington, D.C., and are home to the offices of most major government contractors - also are high on the list.

It appears that the same system may also be at work inside Mississippi:

For instance, Rosemary Barbour, a niece by marriage to Gov. Haley Barbour, has signed three contracts with FEMA totaling almost $4 million.

Rosemary Barbour's company, Alcaltec LLC, is selling mobile showers and laundry units to FEMA.

Well, Haley is a real "family-values" kind of guy, we know.

And, heck, the crony system worked so well in Iraq, why not use it in the New Reconstruction on the Gulf Coast?

Several large FEMA contracts, including those held by Bechtel, the Shaw Group, the Fluor Corp. and CH2M Hill, were awarded without competitive bidding.

Responding to criticism of the no-bid contracts, acting FEMA Director David Paulison told a Senate panel last month he will rebid some of those agreements, but that hasn't happened.

Brother Jeb's state is getting a little of that no-bid action, too:

The other government agency handing out hurricane-related contracts, the Army Corps of Engineers, also has awarded no-bid contracts.

The largest, in the amount of $545 million, was awarded to AshBritt Environmental, a Florida company.

Stories like this should be able to shame some of the officials involved into cleaning up their contracting act a bit.  But that would require the Bush administration officials involved to have some sense of shame.