Feb 6, 2018 - Science

Company with FEMA meal delivery contract shortchanged Puerto Rico

Puerto Ricans line up to purchase ice in September after Hurricane Maria. Photo: Ricardo Arduengo / AFP / Getty Images

FEMA gave a $156 million contract to a single-employee Georgia company (which had five previously-terminated government contracts) to provide 30 million meals for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, according to a report from The New York Times. The company only delivered 50,000 meals and the contract was canceled last October.

Why it matters: Risky contracts awarded in the earliest days after Maria, like Whitefish Energy, indicate that both the federal government and local entities in Puerto Rico simply weren't equipped for the scale of the disaster.

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