Road Home contractor receives $99 million raise
From Sunshine Review
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23 September 2008 The administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal has been publicly tough on ICF International, the company in charge of the Road Home program in Louisiana. Recently released information has shown that ICF has so far received a $99 million raise from this same administration.[1]
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[edit] Gov. Blanco
Last March, in the final days of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration, Jindal and officials with the Louisiana Recovery Authority were outraged when Blanco announced a $156 million contract increase for ICF. This raised their take from $756 million to $912 million.
ICF, based in Fairfax, Virginia, was put in charge of running the $10.3 billion federally funded Road Home program. They have been highly criticized for their work, including delays and grant miscalculations. And yet, Jindal's administration has already paid over half of this increase.
[edit] Citizen's Road Home Action Team
A community group calling themselves the Citizen's Road Home Action Team submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for records pertaining to the program. After six weeks of waiting they finally received a reply. One of the documents, an internal financial summary, showed that $59.6 million of the increase had been paid by August 4.
The group provided the AP with the information, which pressed state officials to admit that an additional $39.4 had been paid since then. Attorney Davida Finger, who submitted the request stated, "The implementation of this program has not changed with this administration. The program continues to operate with rules that are shrouded in secrecy and disastrous customer service." A spokesperson for the Governor said Jindal was in transit from Washington, D.C. and could not be reached for comment.
[edit] Program criticism
The Road Home program began in July 2006. Its aim is to provide victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita up to $150,000 to rebuild or sell homes damaged by the storms. So far it has given $7 billion to 117,606 victims. Up to 37,000 eligible residents continue to wait for help some two years later.
State financial audits grant miscalculations by the program to have been as high as 27%. Last May, ICF was fined $1 million for failing to meet agreed upon benchmarks. However, ICF saw profits soar when they went public after getting the Road Home contract. The program is the largest single housing contract in U.S. history.
[edit] Snookered
State Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, who worked to secure broader rights of victims to appeal grant amounts, said he had never heard that ICF had been paid any of the raise. He went on to say the company had been overpaid the entire time, stating "I wouldn't mind seeing it spent if the job was done effectively. What's frustrating is how many people got snookered."
