Corps Insider Wins New Orleans Levee Contract

In a move the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) claims is “like hiring Michael Brown to reform FEMA,” a firm led by a the former Chief of Engineers of the U.S. Corps of Engineers has been awarded the massive federal contract to repair the New Orleans flood control system damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

The company, HNTB Federal Services Corporation, is led by retired General Robert B. Flowers, who served as the Corp’s head engineer from 2000 until 2004. Under Gen. Flowers, PEER claims the “Corps pursued questionable navigation projects in New Orleans at the expense of flood and hurricane protection.” In addition, PEER notes that as commander of Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division from 1995 to 1997, Flowers was “directly responsible for construction, operation, inspection, and maintenance of New Orleans flood and hurricane protection projects.”

It has become common practice for Pentagon and Corps leaders, who leave government service, to go to work for private-sector companies that vie for government contracts. “The revolving door at the Corps churns so fast that it resembles a Cuisinart,” said PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch in a press release. “The system’s perverse incentives turn tragedies into profit opportunities reserved for connected insiders.”

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