Four Construction companies are getting special attention. They will get a quarter-billion each for work that hasn't yet been created by natural disasters.
The four giant construction firms that received controversial no-bid contracts to house Hurricane Katrina evacuees last September will be earning up to $250 million apiece to do similar work after future disasters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday.
Unlike the Katrina deals, the contracts announced yesterday were awarded after a bidding process. But most of them went to the same four firms: Bechtel Corp., CH2M Hill Cos., Fluor Corp. and Shaw Group Inc. Two new consortia of companies were also chosen for a share of the work. Together, the six winners will receive up to $1.5 billion for hauling and installing temporary trailers to house evacuees during future emergencies.
These bid were only for selected work.
Lee said FEMA did not rebid more of the work because the four companies had already begun setting up the trailers and bringing in new contractors would have delayed the process.
These same companies that have "started" the work, have ballooned prices, outrageously, since their original proposals. And there is no end in sight.
Meanwhile, Bechtel, CH2M Hill, Fluor and Shaw continued their work under the original, no-bid contract, as costs rapidly grew. Shaw will now receive up to $950 million for the work, Fluor will get up to $1.4 billion, Bechtel will receive as much as $575 million, and the CH2M Hill deal is expected to go as high as $530 million.
How has FEMA's response impacted the residents? R. Neal discussed this yeasterday.
An AP report said yesterday that Gulf Coast residents are still having problems getting temporary housing nearly a year after Katrina
Lets continue to award future projects to companies that fed off of people's disadvantages, never fulfuilling the objective of what they were supposed to do in the first damn place, and in the process bilked the taxpayers for billions.
Way to go!
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