Auditors to probe Katrina contracts (AP) Updated: 2005-09-28 21:50
Blanco vehemently denied that she waited until the eve of the storm to order
an evacuation of New Orleans. She said her order came on the morning of Aug. 27
— two days before the storm — resulting in 1.3 million people evacuating the
city.
"Such falsehoods and misleading statements, made under oath before Congress,
are shocking," Blanco said in a statement Tuesday.
Rep. Christopher Shays (news, bio, voting record), R-Conn., said Wednesday
that while Brown made mistakes, so did others. "He can't be the scapegoat. First
responders are local and state, and the governor and mayor did a pathetic job of
preparing their people for this horrific storm," Shays said on NBC's "Today"
show.
On Wednesday, lawmakers turned their attention to the lucrative Katrina
contracts.
In the weeks after the Aug. 29 storm, more than 80
percent of the $1.5 billion in contracts awarded by FEMA for Katrina work were
handed out with little or no competition or had open-ended or vague terms that
previous audits have cited as being highly prone to abuse.
|
| | Australia fending off bird flu | | | | | Massive Indonesian vaccination drive against polio resumes | | | | | Hurricane Rita aftermath in the United States | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|