By Jaquetta White
The New Orleans Advocate
New Orleans did not adequately monitor its procurement process or consistently follow proper federal guidelines and regulations when awarding contracts for disaster recovery work following Hurricane Isaac, the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said in a report released this week.
The findings come as the result of an audit of the spending of the $6 million in Community Development Block Grant Disaster assistance HUD awarded to New Orleans after the August 2012 storm.
The audit covered the city’s grant period from Aug. 1, 2012, through Oct. 31, 2014. It included three of the five contracts the Landrieu administration awarded for using the disaster grant funds. The contracts were for drain cleaning, demolition and grant management services.
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