Thursday, August 19, 2010
photo: Claremont McKenna College)
Small businesses in states ravaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were cut out of most of the government contracts for clean up and rebuilding work that followed the storms in 2005.
An assessment by the Government Accountability Office found that U.S. government agencies awarded $20.5 billion nationwide between August 2005 and September 2009 to help the Gulf Coast states recover from the natural disasters. But small businesses in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas received a combined $2.9 billion in contracts, or less than 14% of the total awarded. Another 13% went to small businesses from other parts of the country, while 73% went to large businesses.
Louisiana small businesses were given about $1.5 billion in contracts, while Alabama’s took in only $325 million.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Report Finds Gaps in Gulf Coast Small Biz Contracting (by Robert Brodsky, Government Executive)
Federally Funded Programs Have Helped to Address the Needs of Gulf Coast Small Businesses, but Agency Data on Subcontracting Are Incomplete (Government Accountability Office) (pdf)
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