Government watchdogs probing $2B Katrina roadwork project as New Orleans faces federal deadline

In late 2015, the city of New Orleans and FEMA resolved years of haggling over how much federal relief the city should get to rebuild the sewage systems, water systems and roads damaged following Hurricane Katrina. The settlement allowed the city and the Sewerage and Water Board to launch a roughly $2 billion roadwork project, heralded by then-Mayor Mitch Landrieu as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make a dent in the city’s backlog of dilapidated and pothole-ridden streets.

But the federal deadline to spend the Katrina money is only 15 months away, at which time the remainder of the federal allocation could be clawed back. And so far, the city has only spent somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of it, meaning there is well over $1 billion left to use.

With the August 2023 deadline looming, it now appears that government watchdog offices, both at the local and federal level, are looking into the city’s management of the program, known as the Joint Infrastructure Recovery Request (JIRR) program.

New Orleans’ Inspector General Ed Michel confirmed his office will soon issue a report on the program. And records obtained by The Lens show that a former city employee was interviewed by an investigator from FEMA’s Fraud Prevention & Investigations Branch, a special agent from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General and the chief of criminal investigations for the New Orleans Office of Inspector General.

Read more: https://thelensnola.org/2022/05/10/government-watchdogs-probing-2b-katrina-roadwork-project-as-city-faces-federal-deadline/