FEMA faulted for contractors’ failure to deliver assistance
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 by the Associated Press 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, Fla., never delivered those urgently needed supplies.
The report from Democrats on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs described failures by the Trump administration that prevented timely delivery of tarps and sheeting to hurricane victims after the summer’s storms. It focused on the Bronze Star contract and another awarded to Global Computers and Networks LLC of Fort Washington, Pa.
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.
FEMAhad awarded Global Computers a $33.9 million contract to provide 500,000 tarps but canceled the deal about five weeks later because of the company’s failure to provide any tarps. FEMA also terminated Bronze Star’s contracts without paying any money after about four weeks.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., called the contracts “a failure to safeguard tax dollars and a failure to deliver desperately needed goods and services.”