State outsourced allocation of federal disaster recovery funds to firm that has spent little on clients vs administration
According to a story in last weeks Austin American Statesman, the state quietly outsourced the management of more than $1 billion in federal disaster recovery funds to an engineering firm with close ties to the Governor’s administration, paying the Kansas City, Mo. -based firm HNTB $45 million so far to process infrastructure grants for communities damaged by Hurricanes Dolly and Ike.
However, the company’s billings threaten to exhaust the amount budgeted for administrative and planning costs while only 20 percent of the first round of money released to Texas to aid disaster recovery grants has been spent three years after the storms. Based on the state’s original timeline, at least half those projects should have been completed by now, federal officials say.
(Full report can be found at the Austin American Statesman)
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