FEMA faulted for failed contracts on aid for hurricanes

WASHINGTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded contracts for hurricane supplies without adequately researching whether winning bidders could deliver what they promised, according to a new investigation by Democrats on a Senate oversight committee.

The investigation followed disclosures in November that a newly created Florida company with an unproven record had won more than $30 million in FEMA contracts to provide 500,000 tarps and 60,000 rolls of plastic sheeting for repairs after Hurricane Maria damaged tens of thousands of homes in Puerto Rico.

That vendor, Bronze Star LLC of

St. Cloud, Florida, never delivered those supplies.

The report, from Democrats on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, described failures that prevented timely delivery of tarps and sheeting to hurricane victims. It focused on the Bronze Star contract and another awarded to Global Computers and Networks LLC of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.

Bronze Star was formed less than two months before bidding on FEMA’S tarp and sheeting contracts. Global Computers registered as a federal government contractor in September, about one month before it won its FEMA contract.

“Once again we’ve seen massive contracts awarded to individuals and companies that would seem to have no capacity to deliver,” Sen. Claire Mccaskill, D-MO., said in a statement. She called the contracts “a failure to safeguard tax dollars and a failure to deliver desperately needed goods and services.”

The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general is investigating the contracts.

The head of Global Computers, Dominique Pereira, told the AP that the company has been cooperating with federal investigators but declined further comment. Phone calls to Bronze Star’s offices in Florida went unanswered.