IMS needs to take notes as Louisiana continues to teach Mississippi lessons in public corruption. Congress approved $1.6 billion in aid for victims of The Flood With No Name that took place last August. However, Louisiana being Louisiana, its politicians got the bright idea to award a "project manager contract" for....... drum roll..... Ed McMahon voice announcing the contract..... $350 million. You can't make this up. However, it gets even better and it will sound very familiar to Mississippians.
The two best bids got thrown out by the state contracting board after it's attorney told the board that the bidders did not have the necessary licenses when they submitted their proposals. They have since obtained the necessary licenses. However, his son just happened to work for the company that got the contract and just happened to have the right license. What's $350 million when it's all in the family? Did I mention that the board's attorney just happened to be convicted of racketeering and bribery as a public official back in 1997? You can't make this up. The Morning Advocate reported:
Former state Sen. Larry Bankston should have mentioned a possible conflict before he rendered a legal opinion that wound up disqualifying the two top bidders for a mammoth contract to manage Louisiana’s $1.6 billion flood-recovery program, according to one of the spurned bidders and an expert in legal ethics.
Bankston, the attorney for the State Licensing Board for Contractors, told the board that companies vying for the contract needed to have a residential contractor’s license — something that three of the five bidders did not have. The board agreed with him.
Bankston, who went to federal prison for racketeering in 1997, did not disclose to the board that his son, Ben, works for an affiliate of the bidder ranked No. 3. When the top two bidders were thrown out, that company suddenly was poised to get the work, at a price tag of perhaps $350 million.
However, officials in Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration instead opted last week to restart the process, which is aimed at helping victims of 2016’s catastrophic floods. A new bid solicitation was issued Wednesday. Rest of article. Read it all.
Kingfish note: People are homeless or living out of FEMA trailers while the state wants to give 20% of the recovery to a friggin project manager. Pitchforks, ropes, tar, feather, and I'm not kidding. It's the only thing these thieves in both states will understand. I almost didn't post this story as I was afraid it would give some politicians and their friends some ideas.
This post appeared on Reddit but as with most Reddit threads, take it with a grain of salt. Trust but verify. You get the idea. It states:
I work at a Louisiana office that audits the state. We found clear, obvious evidence that the state is trying to give away 100M to his crony friends at Sullivan Group, but were suppressed from sharing the information. Here is a (not so) brief synopsis. PLEASE COPY AND SHARE THIS INFO TO THE LOCAL NEWS STATIONS, LINKS BELOW
TL;DR : The state used Larry Bankston to rule something idiotic so they could give 100M more to their friends (and Larry Bankston's son) at Sullivan Group, instead of giving that money to homeowners with flood damage.
- The floods in Louisiana caused the state to be given 1.2B for recovery (Source: http://wgno.com/2016/12/23/a-billion-dollars-for-flood-recovery-coming-to-louisiana/)
- These funds are to be overseen by a contractor
- A contractor with the best plan and the cheapest bid (250M versus 350M) won
- The selection committee that scores the proposals was rigged in Sullivan Group's (the 350M bid) favor, with political people being swapped in for half the technical people in the last week
- The remaining technical people scored the cheap/good company so highly in technical that the cheap/good company still won
- A protest was filed that the original winner needed a builders license. The builders on the team DO have the license, but the argument was that the tech company doing the project management should also have a builders license (??)
- Even though the protest seems absurd, the liberals chose Larry Bankston to rule on it. Larry Bankston is deeply connected to Sullivan Group (his son Ben is the regional manager for their local company, DRC!!) (source again: https://www.businessreport.com/article/protests-flood-recovery-contract-mounting-louisiana-cancel-rfp-start)
- Larry of course ruled that the tech company should also have a builders license so that the whole contract is cancelled
- Now the liberals have put out a new request to score the team's proposals and the fix is in. Sullivan Group will win and walk away with their 350M dollar bounty prize in federal funds for a 250M job
They'll probably find and fire me but wtv. I'm counting on you, Donald supporters and the Donald himself, DRAIN THIS LIBERAL SWAMP
21 comments:
Odd how nobody in the local media seems at all interested in exposing this sort of graft and corruption. Guess that is to be expected from liberals and Donkeycrats.
I read the same article in the Advocate. Typical, been doing business down there for 45 years and could write a book.
Who is IMS ???
Because politicians get into the game and seek re-election because of the meager salaries and oodles of prestige. I'm sure it's not to enrich themselves and their cronies. Every time someone says that taxation is theft, two dozen jabrones jump in and scream Roadz! Skools! Teh Children! Furst Reysponders! Yes, I'm heartless because I hate having 40% of my income taken at the point of a gun to dole out among the 'duly elected government' and the cronies that got them elected. But the good news is that the 60% I get to keep, well everything I buy is taxed. Then, what is left after buying what I need for my family, I invest. Then the gubment is intitled to 15% of any of that. At the end of my life, when I try and leave what I've accumulated to my children, then they take another 50% off of the top. We're government property. That's why they assign us unique serial numbers. So they can make sure they squeeze every dime out of us. Keep fighting over red and blue. Does it really matter what color the boot on your neck is?
Happy Tax Season to all. I'm off to finish the binder of documents to send to my accountant so they can fill out my tax forms and beg some asshole in a cubicle 2000 miles away to keep a portion of my income.
At the end of my life, when I try and leave what I've accumulated to my children, then they take another 50% off of the top.
Shit poor planning on your part.
9:24, you are exactly right and as long as we allow them to take it the longer it will last. "Taxation without Representation", has been going on since time began. Let's keep sending Bennie, Thad, Wicker and the other crooks to Washington.
Shit poor planning on your part
You're siding with the thieves on this? You are really making a case for that sort of confiscation?
Maybe your wife or daughter wouldn't have gotten raped if she hadn't dressed like a whore. Taking what you want because you feel entitled vice earning it is no different. Check your moral compass, 9:35, it's busted. Legal and moral or far too often not the same thing. If you think because a minority of people went to a church hall, school library, or firehouse and pulled a lever to decide that they get to take half of everyone's wealth at death is moral...boy, howdy.
That's closer to 22%. Basically a quarter of every dollar is going into the PM firm's pocket.
I don't care who you are nor how much the total funds are, 22% of the total going to a project manager is as crooked as it gets. I was just part of a PM team for a $100 million project and the firm got nowhere near $22 million. Suffice it to say the PM fee percentage was in the low single digit area.
Someone needs to audit the hell out of that firm, especially things like bonuses and perks for the shareholders. I imagine a lot of them will be driving late model BMWs and Mercedes Benzes next year.
9:24. See a revocable trust lawyer. The government KNOWS they can steal your money with a death tax, but to soothe their guilt with this ripoff, they make revocable trusts legal, knowing full well most of John Q. Public won't go to the trouble of looking into or creating.
Again, who is IMS ????????????????/
Again, who is IMS ????????????????/
IMS Engineers.
Click here
>>>IMS needs to take notes<<<
Only the KF knows for sure, but it might be a typo.
>>>MS needs to take notes<<< would make contextual sense.
I've done business with IMS---they have no shame---will take advantage of every government program offered---they hate white people and don't care for too many blacks. It's all about taking advantage of the minority programs and they will run over anyone that gets in their way. Crony Capitalism at it's best as long as you are black !!!!!!!!!
This is just one more reason Jackson will not survive another black administration.
So who determines the LA contract in the end? The governor? the legislative branch?
Heard anything from Blount, Bryan, Brown, Baria and Fat Bobby?
Louisiana Gov. Jon Bel Edwards (D.) called his state's record on the gender pay gap "an embarrassment and an outrage," but he has failed to attain gender pay equality in his own office, according to records of salaries paid in the governor's office obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Edwards has spent the past year pushing for a state gender discrimination law. Earlier this month, Edwards and his wife held an "Equal Pay Summit" after Louisiana ranked last in Bloomberg's gender-equality ratings.
Salary data obtained through Louisiana's Department of State Civil Service, however, shows that Edwards has his own gender pay gap, as women working in his office make just 82 cents for each dollar earned by men.
The analysis found that the median salary of the 43 women working in Edwards' office is $55,000, which is $12,000 less than the median salary of $67,000 earned by the 23 men employed there.
Who in our state has made a killing in government programs like FEMA, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, etc?
Larry Bankston had to sale off his Highland Colony lots back in 2009.
Can't do much about Louisiana but we might could look in our own backyard and try to figure out why we beat them out for most corrupt State in the Union.
9:19, have you never heard of Rosemary Barber?
I can think of several contractors, especially contractors that had plenty of dump trucks and excavators at the ready, who made obscene amounts of money on Katrina (FEMA). Some of it was even honest. Most of it was incredibly overpriced bullshit. Katrina enabled one in particular to continue his drug and alcohol addled lifestyle that would have been the death of the company. Instead, many, many millions filled the coffers and the party goes on.
This is closer to home than you may realize. Horne LLP, Mississippi's very own stud bean counters, is partnered with the Sullivan Group (the 350M bid) in this Louisiana political drama.
Remember Horne? They've gotten their share of headlines across the years http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2010/mar/16/horne-llp-under-fire-again/.
They were big into the Katrina Recovery funds in Mississippi. Employed a lot of politically powerful as subcontractors. And then they found their way to New York and Super Storm Sandy. It will be interesting to see how things work out for them in Louisiana now that this obvious bid rigging scandal is getting the ink..
Horne.. Ha! That figures. Their fortunes have been greatly enhanced by public money, and now they feel entitled to it in Louisiana, too, finding like minded hucksters to partner with. Good question 8:59. Where is our local media when it comes to stuff like this?
Post a Comment