Audit: $7.8M Overpaid on Katrina Contract

[ProSense]

Audit: $7.8M Overpaid on Katrina Contract

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 51 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The government overpaid by 20 percent on a $39.5 million, no-bid Hurricane Katrina contract for portable classrooms because the Army Corps of Engineers passed up chances to negotiate a lower price, a federal audit says.

The draft Government Accountability Office report on the contract with Akima Site Operations LLC, a subsidiary of an Alaska Native-owned firm, said the government wasted at least $7.8 million on the classrooms in Mississippi. It's the latest in a series of audits detailing waste of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in the hurricane recovery effort.

Snip...

"The Corps accepted Akima's proposed price of $39.5 million although they had information that the cost for the classrooms was significantly less than what Akima was charging," the report said. "We believe the Corps could have, but failed to, negotiate a lower price."

Some lawmakers were immediately critical.

"The administration has some explaining to do," said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. "We can't allow this to become an excuse for not awarding small firms their fair share of contracts."

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060420/ap_on_go_ot/katrina_contracts_2

[Horse with no Name]

1. One has to wonder

about the relationship this has to ANWR.