Watchdog assesses FEMA contracts

An analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) records shows that some 90 percent of the first wave of (the post-Katrina reconstruction) contracts awarded were awarded to companies from outside the three worst-affected states, according to a report released by CorpWatch, a nonprofit corporate watchdog group.

After months of controversy and Congressional hearings, companies from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama had increased their share of the total contracts to a combined 16.6 percent, or $1.17 billion, of the $6 billion in total contracts FEMA had awarded nationwide by July 2006, according to the report. The report on Gulf Coast reconstruction construction contracts is available at www.corpwatch.org