FEMA Contract Called for 30 Million Meals for Puerto Ricans. 50,000 Were Delivered.
Source: The New York Times
By PATRICIA MAZZEI and AGUSTIN ARMENDARIZFEB. 6, 2018
The mission for the Federal Emergency Management Agency was clear: Hurricane Maria had torn through Puerto Rico, and hungry people needed food. Thirty million meals needed to be delivered as soon as possible.
For this huge task, FEMA tapped Tiffany Brown, an Atlanta entrepreneur with no experience in large-scale disaster relief and at least five canceled government contracts in her past. FEMA awarded her $156 million for the job, and Ms. Brown, who is the sole owner and employee of her company, Tribute Contracting LLC, set out to find some help.
Ms. Brown, who is adept at navigating the federal contracting system, hired a wedding caterer in Atlanta with a staff of 11 to freeze-dry wild mushrooms and rice, chicken and rice, and vegetable soup. She found a nonprofit in Texas that had shipped food aid overseas and domestically, including to a Houston food bank after Hurricane Harvey. By the time 18.5 million meals were due, Tribute had delivered only 50,000. And FEMA inspectors discovered a problem: The food had been packaged separately from the pouches used to heat them. FEMAs solicitation required self-heating meals.
Do not ship another meal. Your contract is terminated, Carolyn Ward, the FEMA contracting officer who handled Tributes agreement, wrote to Ms. Brown in an email dated Oct. 19 that Ms. Brown provided to The New York Times. This is a logistical nightmare.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/us/fema-contract-puerto-rico.html
C_U_L8R
(45,021 posts)Masquerading as several hundred dollar 4-star meals at Trump Hotels?
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)We are now in the moron's America!
lark
(23,156 posts)He deights in fuckingg us over so hires the most incompetent toadies he can find.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)I got a brief glimpse inside some local Pentagon contractors when the Gulf War was just kicking off... It's a joke
UpInArms
(51,284 posts)🤦🏽?♀️
TheDebbieDee
(11,119 posts)In the end PRIVATIZATION costs more $, provides less and makes a few people VERY wealthy! $156, most of which will go to someone's luxury home and several cars and country club fees!
Competently staffed FEMA Dept would have provided the 30 million meals, employed more people to provide the meals while providing these workers that distribute the meals a salary...
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)How many fiascos are we willing to endure before properly vetting government subcontractors? How much more theft are we willing to tolerate until the system is reformed?
groundloop
(11,523 posts)I'm sure the contractor was a 45* crony in some way, why else would they award such a huge contract to someone who was totally unqualified? FIVE cancelled government contracts should have at least been a hint at her competency! What a mess.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)the system is decades overdue for some major reforms, but nobody ever willingly gets off a gravy train!
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)It looks like she got in over her head on the ones she failed at.
This same thing happened in Katrina, small DBEs (Disadvantage Business Enterprise) got in trouble for not being able to provide logistics.
I suspect there's more to this story than meets the eye. After the GAO's report on Katrina her company should've never got such a large contract.
jpak
(41,759 posts)not
Atticus
(15,124 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,613 posts)Last edited Tue Feb 6, 2018, 04:45 PM - Edit history (2)
Dr. Tiffany Brown, About MeThe doctorate is from Walden University.
By the way, Walden, you wanted a period after "Minneapolis, Minnesota" and not a comma. "Walden University is a for-profit Public Benefit Corporation, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota," is what is called a sentence.
https://twitter.com/drtiffanybrown
Upthevibe
(8,072 posts)read it later when I can...