St. Louis Post-Dispatch Area contractors get silence in reply to offers of Katrina help

"Eager to cash in on Katrina, Ken Kubalek blazed all night down I-55 last week, pitched a tent in Mississippi and began his bid to join Operation Blue Roof, nailing tarps on damaged homes.

On the way south, he passed truck after truck hauling backhoes and other heavy equipment, as well as whole semis full of Bobcat mini-dozers - all part of a migration of contractors and laborers seeking opportunity along the Gulf Coast.

But so far, Kubalek and many others have encountered frustration at the pace of the cleanup and confusion about who's in charge of billions of dollars in taxes that will pay for it."

The Wall Street Journal No-Bid Contracts Win Katrina Work

"The Bush administration is importing many of the contracting practices blamed for spending abuses in Iraq as it begins the largest and costliest rebuilding effort in U.S. history.

The first large-scale contracts related to Hurricane Katrina, as in Iraq, were awarded without competitive bidding, and using so-called cost-plus provisions that guarantee contractors a certain profit regardless of how much they spend."

CNN Firms with White House ties get Katrina contracts

"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."

""The government has got to stop stacking senior positions with people who are repeatedly cashing in on the public trust in order to further private commercial interests," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight."

AFL-CIO Bush Buddies Get No-Bid Contracts While Workers Get the Shaft

"Some of the first large-scale Hurricane Katrina relief and recovery contracts awarded by the Bush administration were awarded on a no-bid basis to corporations with strong ties to the administration and the Republican Party, according to news stories in The Wall Street Journal and other media. At the same time, the administration is using the catastrophe to push a reactionary anti-worker agenda, gutting federal regulations that protect worker safety and ensure quality work and living wages."

"The no-bid contracts “guarantee profits regardless of how much those companies spend or waste,” says AFT President Edward J. McElroy. “This is happening at the same time that the local hires of these firms will, in many cases, not earn a living wage. It is unconscionable that our national government would act to hurt those most in need while delivering a windfall to wealthy contractors. These decisions must be reversed.”"

The New York Times Official Vows Investigation of No-Bid Relief Contracts
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"The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that his office had received accusations of fraud and waste in the multibillion-dollar relief programs linked to Hurricane Katrina and would investigate how no-bid contracts were awarded to several large, politically well-connected companies.

The inspector general, Richard L. Skinner, who serves as the department's internal watchdog, said in an interview that he intended to be "extremely aggressive" in monitoring the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will receive most of the $62 billion in disaster-response financing approved by Congress last week."