More Katrina fraud? The federal government awarded $653 million to the Gulf Coast Regional Infrastructure Grant Program for the purpose of developing and implementing infrastructure in the six coastal counties. HUD audited the Katrina relief money and said the state misspent the money on appraisals and wastewater plants that were not needed. The report charges:
The State did not fully implement adequate controls and procedures to ensure (1) that the need for and capacity of water and wastewater treatment facilities constructed addressed needs created by Hurricane Katrina or supported economic development and (2) the proper designation and completion of emergency activities. As a result, disaster funding of more than $653 million was approved to construct 67 facilities that may include some plants, the capacity of which was either too small or excessive, and others plants that may not have been needed. More than $9.6 million of disaster funds were approved for a facility based on an emergency requirement when the facility did not meet the definition of an emergency requirement.
HUD also questioned several appraisals:
The State did not ensure that its subrecipient, Harrison County Utility Authority, and its appraisers complied with the terms of appraisal agreements for the appraisal of property acquired under the State’s Gulf Coast Regional Infrastructure Program. The State could not support $7,200 paid for appraisals that did not meet standards. In addition, it lacked assurance that land purchased for more than $2.1 million was appraised at a reasonable price.
The appraisal issue is one of minor concern. The real story here is the construction of wastewater facilities that were not needed. The state gave the contract to Mississippi Engineering Group. Stop right there. Mississippi Engineering Group. Every time you see that name, replace it with the names of Joe Waggoner and Carl Ray Furr. Masters at getting government contracts and milking, oops, I meant working the system. They are also masters at generating studies that require the payments of fees from the host, oops, I meant contracting government agency. Take a look at the Hinds-Rankin Levee Board finances over the years. They paid quite a pretty penny to them for consulting and studying. Enough speculation, its time to look at some contract.
DEQ first awarded the contract to Mississippi Engineering group in 2006. The Department of Finance & Administration's websites states the purpose of the contract was
PROVIDE ASSISTANCE TO MDEQ IN PERPARING A COMPREHENSIVE MASTER PLAN FOR THE DEVEOPMENT OF REGIONAL WATER, WASTEWATER AND STORM WATER SYSTEMS FOR SIX MS COUNTIES OF GEORGE, JACKSON, HANCOCK, HARRISON,PEAR RIVER AND STONE FOR NEW AND EXPANEDED INFRASTURURE IN THE AFTERMATH OF HURRICANES KATRINA AND RITA.
DEQ modified the contract several times over the next few years. It modified the contract in 2009 to "increase the overall budget" to Mississippi Engineering Group. The maximum amount of $23,509,312. The embedded document below contains the original contract and all modification (They are read in reverse order.). The Seethespending.org website* states DEQ paid $29,624,676 to Mississippi Engineering Group since 2006. DFA's website states DEQ paid the following amounts to MSEG (Seethespending.org is used for 2006-2009):
2014: $961,601
2013: $1,908,687
2012: $2,620,405
2011: $2,247,551
2010: $647,686
2009: $8,990,322
2008: $7,697,317
2007: $3,460,369
The state required Mississippi Engineering Group to predict population changes in order to determine the needs of George, Hancock, Harrison, Pearl River, Jackson, and Stone Counties. HUD accused the state of allowing MSEG to use projections backed up by no evidence to justify the proposals for several projects. It said the estimates were much higher than those provided by the state and U.S. Census Bureau. HUD alleged Mississippi Engineering Group asked its consultant to revise the population estimates from a predicted growth of 25% to 64% (see footnote on p. 48 in report). The report states:
The contractor justified its request for increases, stating that the infrastructure needed to be in place for the population to increase and it would be difficult to justify enhanced infrastructure if the projections were low. On January 9, 2007, the State published the Gulf Region Water and Wastewater Plan for the six Mississippi counties’ population projections for the 20-year planning period, which projected an increased population growth of 64 percent
HUD said some of the projects would have a very low usage rate after completion:
some, particularly in Harrison County, would have a relatively low utilization rate after projects were complete. For example, the water project located in North Harrison County was estimated to have less than 1 percent usage after the 2011 completion date. Also, the wastewater projects located in the city of Saucier and East Central Harrison County were estimated to have zero to 6 percent and less than 1 percent usage, respectively, after the 2011 completion dates (p.16)
The final paragraph on page 14 states HUD's position rather succinctly:
Because State officials accepted inadequately supported changes to population growth levels, the plan HUD approved to use more than $653 in disaster funds to construct 67 facilities may have included some plants that were too small or large and others plants that may not have been needed
Translation: The contractor allegedly used phony information to build plants no one needed.
The state responded (Comment 9 on page 34) that the so-called "unsupported projections" of population growth were in fact created by the Gulf Regional Planning Commission and were thus valid. HOwever, HUD responded to the response and said the data used only covered three of the six counties and only used projections for 2005 and 2030. HUD also said the GRPC data was in conflict with data provided by the state's own expert.
*The Seethespending.org data tends to understate the DFA data. Example: Total amount for FY 2013 was roughly $600,000 less on Seethespending.org than DFA website.
24 comments:
I'm surprised that infrastructure company based out of Richland Ms. that has a Lear jet wasn't named somewhere.
January 3 @ 11:34 Are you referring to Hemphill Construction?
Sounds like the moral of the story is we should't trust projections from consultants who have a vested interest in predicting positive growth to justify projects. Imagine how much money would have been saved if more realistic numbers based on actual observed population trends had been utilized.
Since when is the federal government concerned with building things that aren't needed? How many airport terminals have been 'porked' with ten passengers a month? How many bridges and highways to nowhere are there? To see where this is going, simply follow the red/blue states map.
More from the "ghost of Haley". Small apples compared to what he steered in money to his buddies in contracts and road-home style grants. Hopefully the DMR folk will cut a plea deal for themselves by ratting him out.
11.34 Hemphill is a very good construction company. Having said this, the word on the street was they made over 100M on Katrina work. The fact of the matter is that they were only building projects that were bid out by engineers.
Speaking of the engineers Kingfish mentioned, he correctly named the players in this. They both are slick, very slick..........maybe not as brash another local engineer who has made the news...(hey Kingfish, Madison County is paying someone 1.4 F'n Million to do an airport study.....hint, hint...there is a story here...)
What do you expect is it Joe Waggoner.
What about that Jackson engineering gang? Who are they? That is where the money went. Each project was about 40%+ soft costs, which is more than twice the industry average. This needs to be investigated one leaf at a time after the FBI shakes the tree real hard. Corruption and conflicts=CDBG money on our states cost line since 2005.
They had to come up with the name Mississippi Engineering Group because Waggoner and Pickering had done this same thing for so many rural North MS municipalities time and time again with CDBG funding that it would have been figured out by the FEDS. This was another over-designed boondoggle. I'm just glad they don't have their hands on Restore Act/BP funds. They certainly tried and created a Hissy Fit with MDEQ when they didn't get a share. What happened there? The Coast knows more about what our future holds than we get credit for from the Jackson engineering gang. Time will tell.
http://msbusiness.com/blog/2013/09/06/mississippi-business-profile-engineering-success-mississippi-waggoner-engineering/
MISSISSIPPI BUSINESS PROFILE — Engineering success for Mississippi in Waggoner Engineering
by Alan Turner
Published: September 6,2013
“Perhaps the most important thing I had to learn was how to work collaboratively with others,” he said. “When you deal with multi-jurisdictional problems, you have to be able to bring people to the table.”
Waggoner focuses heavily on strategic planning, and as Joe defines it, “our goal is to create a happy marriage of technical, social, and political interests.” The company has been heavily involved in many large projects, including coastal restoration following Katrina, major manufacturing projects, wastewater projects, and much more.
Both Joe and John Rounsaville, Waggoner’s vice president for strategic services, agreed that the Mississippi Gulf Coast, at least, is in a much better position now to withstand another major storm.
That second name?
http://capitolwords.org/date/2004/01/27/E55_honoring-john-rounsaville/
Rep. Charles W. Pickering R MS
Honoring John Rounsaville
Extensions of Remarks
Tue, Jan. 27, 2004
Volume 150 , Number 6 Pages E55
Mr. Speaker, this month begins a new year in which Congress will face new challenges and opportunities. The same is true in Mississippi where Governor Haley Barbour presented his first State of the State Address last night, after his inauguration earlier this month. A new administration requires experienced and talented individuals to shape the policy and politic of the state. Governor Barbour has one of those rising Mississippi stars in John Rounsaville. Today I make these remarks to honor John's service to me, to recognize the challenges we faced together as he now embarks on this new opportunity.
It was January 1999 when John Rounsaville first joined my team. After graduating from Calhoun City High School, he earned a degree in agribusiness and followed that with a Masters of Business Administration, both from Mississippi State University. He came to Washington, DC to work on my staff to address, among others, agricultural issues--a $4.6 billion industry in Mississippi.
He demonstrated a keen insight on the legislative process and quickly grasped the intricacies of Capitol Hill politics. Quickly, he moved from Legislative Assistant to Legislative Director, and most recently as my Deputy Chief of Staff. Over the years I grew to trust his counsel and respect his instincts as we successfully moved legislation into law, brought appropriations to Mississippi, protected our state's military facilities, and represented the needs of my constituents here in the Nation's Capital.
Now John has returned home to Mississippi and will serve as policy adviser to our new Republican governor. Our office will miss his experience, knowledge, and skills, but Mississippi will continue to benefit from his hard work to the service of our great state.
Governor Barbour has hired a good man. John mastered the practices and methods of success in Washington, but never forgot those Mississippi values taught to him by his parents. John never lost his roots, never forgot his home, and never lost sight of our goal to serve Mississippi. John's heart has always been in Mississippi and now he returns there to continue to advance smart, conservative, positive public policy.
John Rounsaville left a formative mark on the shape and operation of my office. We will miss his good nature, humor, and dedication to his work. But I thank him for his service to this office and to Mississippi.
The biggest problem with what went on in locating the sewer-water infrastructure on the Coast was this engineering group dictating the locations contrary to the needs or wishes of local politicians and engineers who were told to accept it or nothing would be done. Many of the sewer treatment plants are built with very little pipe in the ground to bring sewer to them. Residents in the coastal cities are paying a fee each month included in their sewer-water bill to maintain all of this under utilized infrastructure that can exceed what they pay for the sewer-water service. As with the Ms.Power Kemper plant the customer is being financially punished for what the politicians allowed to take place. I would say all of this needs to be investigated but I hear the FBI is already doing so. The previous executive director who was fired has already provided all he knows about who is involved. Could it include some of the HCUD board members that got to cozy with SH Anthony? We will see soon I think.
All of this makes John Bell and Rudy look like Gomer and Goober.
7:08, you are so right. This is what Rudy wants to be when he grows up. These are world class crooks and con men. With a 40 years of history only real dummies or other crooks would hire them.
Major problem with the strategic planning for sewer systems was local government denying the state proposal for a regional sewer authority. This resulted in each county competing for a share of the funding. This was not an engineering decision. Bottom line the local politics caused the building of redundant infrastructure each with a local commission.
If the locals did not want to build a regional system,that would save money, the State should not have funded it. Golden rule of who controls money sets rules. The fix was in all the way and this was a engineered deal from start to finish. EPA/DEU is very heavy handed and does care what any business or local government wants.This is a money deal.
I realize these are underhanded business deals that go on in this country everyday,(more than any of us can possibly realize), and Mississippi has its fair share. However, from what I'm reading in some of these comments, I can't help but wonder how much of this is truth and how much of this is jealousy. Do you actually know the facts or are you just jealous because someone else that busted their butts and built a company through hard work were able to secure these contracts? Look in the mirror and answer this question honestly.
11:20- The problem is that many bust their butts to build a business but are shutout by politics. Take for example the money spent for the Riverhills project calling it an emergency to get around normal bid procedures. This project has been completed for about 3 years and does not have a single customer and none in the near future. The facility is locked up tight. Ride out and see for yourself. This is fact as reported by the Sunherald. You must ask yourself who was the emergency for. Why is it located in that spot? I know the answers, do you? I do not see people being anything except outraged by the waste while the same people benefit.
"Do you actually know the facts or are you just jealous because someone else that busted their butts and built a company through hard work were able to secure these contracts? Look in the mirror and answer this question honestly.?"
Based on the post by Kingfish and the documents that are linked, jealous isn't exactly the word I'd use.
Contracts to construct arguably unnecessary infrastructure magically materialize and are there for the plucking by hard workers who secure them to serve the taxpayers. The taxpayers do their hard work and pay for things like the construction of waste water treatment plants with apparently no poop and pee to treat.
The continuing contracts to maintain and operate the plants in question (for the taxpayers who paid for them) are apparently also secured by other hard working contractors.
Nothing much wrong with most of this except for that confusion with the meaning of emergency. Still pretty sure it's not jealousy, because at some number between $2 million and $200 million taxpayer dollars wasted jealousy converts to suspicion. The port, clean coal electricity...
11.20 needs to look up ethics on Wikipedia. I am certain that they work very hard, mostly at business deals on the side. One of the firms works for the National Guard, even though principals in their company are members of said Guard. Another one is in business on the side with the mayor of a local town, and the local town gives them several million dollars a year in fees. Jealousy? How about graft and corruption? Where is the State Auditor and the Engineering Board? The ones breaking the law should be looking in the mirror in a small cell in Parchman!
A Federal Grand Jury is being convened to look at corruption of elected officials.
When you are anti-regulation and want to cut government funding, be aware that the politicians will cut the jobs and funding to prevent corruption first.
This is how we got the Wall Street and banking disaster and this one as well.
When it comes to politics,the details matter.
8:52 DEQs job IS regulation and can shut almost everything in this state down. This is about corruption, payoffs,kickbacks by crooks that buy a lot of protection.
Who is Suncoast Infrastructure ?
So, the State will defend the actions of these crooks and maybe pay some money back to HUD but no one will try to collect from Waggoner/ Furr LLC that was created for this scam. I guess that is why new LLC is used in the first place.
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