Katrina contracts

[Ken Ibold]

You know lots of companies are going to make lots of money during the rebuilding, so it's not surprising things are starting off this way:


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.

One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton.

Bechtel National Inc., a unit of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., has also been selected by FEMA to provide short-term housing for people displaced by the hurricane. Bush named Bechtel's CEO to his Export Council and put the former CEO of Bechtel Energy in charge of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

 

[woodstock]

I think it would be nice if local contractors (if any exist anymore) be hired to fix everything. keep the money there.

 

[Brian Austin]

I think it would be nice if local contractors (if any exist anymore) be hired to fix everything. keep the money there.

That's all well and good but it doesn't work that way in real life.

Addressing Ken's post:

1. Getting on the federal GSA system takes time and lots of paperwork. If you're not on it already, there is no point in trying now for these contracts. It would take too much time and the media would be after the feds for taking too long.

2. Local and regional contractors just don't have the resources to do something this big. We're talking about billions of dollars in resources here: people, machines, materials, logistics, etc.. You can't give that to a company whose claim to fame is putting in a housing development or even building a skyscraper at a time. If they don't HAVE the resources, getting it takes time.

3. Bechtel, Halliburton and others have the experience for this kind of stuff. Didn't the media just get done crucifying the head of FEMA for inexperience?

4. Once you get to this size, anyone in the oil industry will have connections to these companies. Of COURSE Bush knows them. He used to work alongside some of them. Politics and government have always been about connections. Look at Clinton's appointees, too. Same situations: friends, campaign contributors, former employees, etc.. SOP for Washington.

 

[Frank Browne]

All very good points Brian. I would think also that any "local" contractor would be in pretty much the same boat, so to speak, as his neighbors. What about the idea of those big companies hiring from the pool of displaced victims of Katrina for their labor source. It would be a way for money to be pumped back into the local economy wouldn't it?

 

[Brian Austin]

All very good points Brian. I would think also that any "local" contractor would be in pretty much the same boat, so to speak, as his neighbors. What about the idea of those big companies hiring from the pool of displaced victims of Katrina for their labor source. It would be a way for money to be pumped back into the local economy wouldn't it?

Halliburton and Bechtel are HUGE contractors but still use subcontractors for the bulk of the work. There will be plenty of it to go around.

 

[PoAdeleted5]

deleted.

 

[gkainz]

It also means you do NOT get paid on time, EVER. The major contractor types like Bechtel and KBR go months, years sometimes without getting paid. People wonder why it cost so much for the government to get anything done, in part it is because they are the world's worst customer.

I'm feeling real fortunate that my receivables with the VA have been only running about 90 days this year...