Feds: FEMA Wasted $4m on Grass-Cutting

Feds: FEMA Wasted $4m on Grass-Cutting

A June 29 report issued by the U.S Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General says that FEMA wasted money on a Hurricane Katrina contractor that did “a poor job cutting the grass.”

DHS’s watchdog visited nine FEMA trailer parks in Mississippi and Louisiana in 2007, the report said.

“FEMA pays more than $4 million a year at those 9 sites to a contractor that does a poor job cutting the grass,” the report said.

The grass-cutting is “only a small part” of FEMA’s multi-million dollar contract with Alutiiq Global Solutions, the report said.

“We observed tall grass at several of the sites we visited, where managers expressed their concern that the tall grass complicates activities and provides a haven for poisonous snakes that may have contributed to a snakebite incident at one of the Louisiana sites,” the report said.

Natalie Chandler
Clarion Ledger Blog
7/22/9