Now They Tell Them

Continuing the saga of incompetence and lack of oversight by the city officials in New Orleans, from the Times-Picayune:

City officials have been unable to verify work allegedly done by 19 contractors under a taxpayer-financed home-remediation program, including a company owned by Mayor Ray Nagin's brother-in-law and another firm whose owner has had business partnerships with the former head of the embattled New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corp., records released by City Hall late Saturday show.

The companies have been asked to repay as much as $103,517 in taxpayer money if they cannot provide proof of the work billed to City Hall for 46 of the 870 addresses at which the agency has claimed its contractors completed work, an analysis of the records shows.

Didn't you just know that there'd be a relative or two in the mix? Happens every time. It's a tradition. Good luck with collecting the people's money, guys. It might have been better not to have paid it out in the first place, but it's too late now.