Auditor named to investigate BP spill compensation fund
The Justice Department has assigned BDO Consulting as the firm that will be auditing the $20 billion-dollar Gulf Coast Claims Facility, famously and dubiously administered by Kenneth Feinberg.
Gulf Coast lawmakers have complained the fund lacks transparency and has been slow and inconsistent in processing claims. They have urged Justice officials for months to find a company to conduct an audit.
“For nearly a year-and-a-half, thousands of coastal residents and business owners have struggled with a failed claims system that has arbitrarily awarded payments and subjected claimants to lengthy delays without explanation,” said Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala. “All of these people deserve to know how Mr. Feinberg has been conducting his claims operations.”
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Bonner asked Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct an audit while meeting with him in June in Alabama.
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, both Republicans, included language in appropriation bills last month calling for an audit.
“Residents throughout the Gulf Coast have struggled with the claims process,” Wicker said today. “After completing this audit, the GCCF should use a credible and transparent system for determining claims.”
Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., who said his office still gets complaints from people who haven't been paid or feel they were short-changed, called today's announcement “well overdue.”
The issue is “still alive and well down here,” he said.
In a letter today to BDO Consulting, Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli asked the company to review whether there have been “systemic errors” in the handling of claims.
He said the agency has received complaints alleging improper handling of documents, unnecessary delays and inconsistent payments.
The compensation fund has paid over $6 billion in claims.
“Where it has performed well, the people of the Gulf deserve to know that they have been fairly served,” Perrelli wrote. “Where it has fallen short, we must take appropriate steps ... to ensure that victims of the oil spill are fairly treated and properly compensated.”
Feinberg, who has testified at several congressional hearings about the process, applauded the move.
“As we have said all along, we welcome an independent audit,” Feinberg said in a statement. “We are working with the Department of Justice and will work with BDO Consulting on the audit.”
Art Rocker, leader of the advocacy group Operation People for Peace based in Pensacola, Fla., said the audit is necessary.
“They say they have paid (claims), but we really don't know what's been paid until an audit has been done,” Rocker said. “We believe that most of the people who were paid were politically connected ... Even shrimpers are still having problems being paid.”
Rocker and other advocates have raised concerns about whether low-income spill victims have been fairly compensated. He and others spent today in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi distributing 14,000 pounds of food to such victims.
From Florida:
Justice orders audit of BP spill claims process
Auditors newly hired by the U.S. Department of Justice will look into the claims process for people affected by the summer 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
In Florida, Monroe County has been one of the top recipients of claims settlements approved by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, set up to administer a $20 billion trust fund.
As of Thursday, Florida Keys residents or businesses had received more than $170 million on 10,575 claims, the facility reports. The number of pending claims from Monroe was not available.
No oil from the estimated 200 million gallons that flowed into the northern Gulf of Mexico over four months apparently ever reached the Keys. However, the summer tourist season was profoundly affected, as potential visitors worried the spill had already harmed the Keys or was close at hand.
Florida residents and businesses have been paid nearly $2.5 billion on 210,235 settled claims, the GCCF says. Most of the money in Florida has gone to Panhandle counties most directly affected by the BP spill.
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"Those are exactly the same problems we had down here," said former Monroe County Commissioner Mario Di Gennaro, who served on the Florida Oil Spill Economic Recovery Task Force appointed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist.
"There would be two companies in virtually the same situation. One would get paid while the other would not," Di Gennaro said. "There were cases where employees of a company would get paid for their losses but the company would not."
Di Gennaro said the Florida Task Force regularly spoke with GCCF administrator Ken Feinberg about state issues with the spill claims, but the panel has not met since Gov. Rick Scott was sworn into office in January.
"That's sad because I think we could have done a lot more to help people," Di Gennaro said.
From Alabama:
Coastal Alabama leaders pleased with DOJ plan to audit claims facility
Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon said he's pleased that the federal government has asked a firm to audit the processing of more than 1 million damage claims resulting from last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
But he has some concerns.
The audit will be paid for by the claims facility and will be supervised by the Department of Justice, according to a letter from Associate Attorney General Thomas Perelli Wednesday.
Click here to read Perelli's letter in its entirety.
Kennon said he sees the Justice Department as part of the same administration that appointed Feinberg. So, he would rather have members of the local congressional delegation have some role in overseeing the audit.
"Just to say we're going to do an audit doesn't say a whole lot," Kennon said. "If we find that there's some type of relationship, then no one will ever know if the truth is the truth."
Perelli wrote in a letter Wednesday to officials with New York-based BDO Consulting that his office has heard concerns over the improper handling of claims documents, unnecessary delays in processing claims, and inconsistent payments for similarly situated claimants.
Claims czar Ken Feinberg, who has been overseeing the processing of claims on behalf of BP PLC [...] said he welcomes this audit, which local and federal officials have been asking for.
Feinberg added that the claims facility looks forward to working with the auditor.
"They'll find that the Gulf Coast Claims Facility has done a satisfactory job over the last year. We have processed over 1 million claims from 50 states and 37 foreign countries. It has paid out $6 billion, so we must be doing something right," he said. "I believe that any independent audit will demonstrate the overall success of the program."
U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, said, though, that he thinks the audit will find numerous inconsistencies and flaws in the process.
"We're finally going to be able to put a pair of independent eyes on what Mr. Feinberg has said versus what he has done," Bonner said. "It's going to help answer some very tough questions that have, quite frankly, led to some serious frustration among people along the Gulf Coast."
As examples, Bonner cited people who filed multiple claims that were lost or misplaced or are "somehow floating in file 13." And he said numerous issues have arisen, such as two similar businesses filing almost identical claims, but one got 10 cents for every dollar lost, and the other, 70 cents.
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Perelli has asked that the audit be completed by March.
"Where (GCCF) has performed well, the people of the Gulf deserve to know that they have been fairly served," Perelli wrote. "Where it has fallen short, we must take appropriate steps ... to ensure that victims of the oil spill are fairly treated and properly compensated."
Bonner asked Attorney General Eric Holder for such an audit this summer. And Congress included instructions for an audit in a recent funding bill.
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Feinberg's group has for many months been the target of harsh criticism by Gulf Coast residents, lawmakers and others unhappy with its handling of claims.
Feinberg has said his group has processed 95 percent of the claims it has received, and its decisions are rarely, if ever, overturned on appeal.
As information only, we include this:
Danziger and De Llano is an attorney firm based in Houston, Texas and their main focus is to offer victims of the Gulf Oil Spill the help they need in order to receive fair compensation from the BP. Not only this, but the firm can also file lawsuits against several other parties responsible for the disaster, not only the BP. This means that the value of the compensations business owners can have access to, is significantly higher.
The team of attorneys based in Houston is now offering updated information regarding the BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, and most importantly they offer valuable info regarding the oil spill claims process. The website of the law firm can be accessed online at www.bp-claims.us, and here one will find the following areas of interest:
Business Owners Section - here one can find a currently updated list with the business types that are still waiting for rightful compensation from the BP. The main categories of businesses include: BP Claims for Condominium owners, cleaning service owners, hotel/ restaurant owners or the commercial painting company owners.
Filing a Lawsuit vs. Filing a Claim section - the team of attorneys kindly advises clients that they should better file a lawsuit against the BP in order to recuperate their losses, rather than waiting for the GCCF to pay out bp oil claims. The Gulf Coast Claims Facility Center is known for being notoriously slow with reviewing cases and issuing payments, so a lawsuit is a much faster process. Also, the attorneys can pursue compensation against more defendants, not just the BP. These other responsible companies include the Transocean, Cameron International or Halliburton.
The news and current events section - here you can read fresh news regarding what is going on in the field of the BP Oil Spill, and you can also browse through several important press releases. Just to mention a few titles: “Playwright Builds Slideshow on BP Oil Spill”, “Nonprofits Get $300,000 to Help Oil Spill Victims”, “BP to Wind Up Oil Spill Cleanup” or “Transocean not Allowed to Sue U.S. over BP Oil Spill”.
This in no way constitutes an endorsement or advice. |
