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Levee Bribery Scheme-U.S. Army Corp Of Engineer- Guilty Plea
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by René | August 23, 2007 at 05:41 pm
1087 views | 5 Recommendations | 4 comments
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Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A former contract employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to plead guilty to bribery in connection with a $16 million hurricane protection project for the reconstruction of the Lake Cataouatche Levee, south of New Orleans. Raul Miranda plead guilty to providing confidential information used by the Corps to evaluate bids.Miranda who worked as a construction official in the New Orleans office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reviewed construction projects in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
According to investigators from the justice department between August and October of 2006, Miranda agreed to accept approximately $299,000 from a sand and gravel subcontractor in exchange for providing confidential information used by the Corps to evaluate bids.
Miranda, during his tenure with the Army Corps served on the source selection board on the Lake Cataouatche Levee reconstruction bid.
The Times Picayune story doesn't make this any clearer.
Must have been some good info to be worth almost $300,000, although it is not clear whether he ever got the money, just that he agreed to get it.
What is in the story is that the company this man worked for at the time is a subcontractor of the company that got a major contract for rebuilding the levees for about $17 million.
Many residents and scientists have expressed doubts that adequate materials were used in rebuilding, particularly the sand and gravel.
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René
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
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at 18:20 on August 23rd, 2007
René, good stuff. As a local, what does this mean to people there? Has the levee been rebuilt? Or will it be? Given this scandal, are they double checking to see if they got the same quality materials that the project specs called for? It would make this really great stuff if you added some personal commentary and context with a story like this. We want to hear from you!
at 05:50 on August 24th, 2007
Wow! Surprised this isn't bigger news right now...
at 18:31 on August 25th, 2007
Corruption Fatigue?
Will be monitoring as situations develop. So far the reports from the engineers and other scientists from last spring giving the Corps failing marks on the materials being used to repair and rebuild levees are no longer available. Little did I know then that I would need them now. Darn.
There are so many stories on the local issues from the Gambit as well as the Times-Picayune and local programming, blogs and small area newspapers not available or picked up by katrina-fatigued media.
Many broadcasts of meetings, committees, officials, etc. on education, local and parish meetings, broadcast over the local cable.
at 18:47 on August 25th, 2007
Rene, thanks for expanding on this for us. The beauty of NowPublic is that 99.9% of the readers here don't have access to the knowledge you have, from your experience and from those smaller news outlets you mention, and you can inform us.
Keep reporting!