Government Tries to Balance Scrutiny, Speed

The White House has not decided whether to get behind the idea of a special inspector general. Office of Management and Budget spokesman Scott Milburn said that all options are on the table and that the White House is in the process of reviewing what resources are already available. "If it's determined that additional safeguards are needed to guard against fraud and abuse, we'll put those in place," he said.

The contracting situation on the ground in the Gulf remains fluid.

In Vicksburg after the storm hit, the Army Corps of Engineers mobilized about a dozen contractors within 24 hours, giving them a verbal notice to proceed, with the first priority being to repair the breaches in the levees, said Jim Barr, the Corps's acting contracting chief in New Orleans. "It wasn't easy, but we did it," he said. The Corps is still negotiating the specifics of those agreements, Barr added.

Like Zelenka, Dan Fordice, head of Fordice Construction Co. of Vicksburg, another longtime Corps contractor, did not wait for a call. He lives only about seven or eight miles from the emergency center and just showed up Tuesday morning, he said.

Fordice took his company plane that afternoon, with Zelenka aboard, to tour the damage to the levees in New Orleans and to check on the location and condition of barges and boats belonging to them and other contractors.

With enough equipment intact, Fordice quickly turned into a Corps supplier, setting up fueling stations in New Orleans and supplying water. "They just kind of grabbed me up and said, 'Make this happen for me,' " he recalled.

The Corps, which during disasters also handles contracting for the Federal Emergency Management Agency for such items as water, ice and debris removal, is using competition when possible, said Lt. Col. Norbert Doyle, the Corps official responsible for contracting. Federal acquisition regulations give the Corps the authority to take emergency measures, he said.

The Corps is holding a brief competition for $1.5 billion in debris removal work in Louisiana and Mississippi.

"We're trying in my office to get a hold of the spending," Doyle said. "We haven't felt a need to keep a list of contracts awarded to date, but because of the interest in this, in the response, we're trying to put a list together of the spending that we have done."

Last week, the Corps awarded Shaw Group Inc., a Baton Rouge contractor, a $100 million contract with one of its first tasks to pump floodwater out of New Orleans. Other companies were contacted to generate a competition for the work, Doyle said, but only Shaw responded.

The Corps will move "toward normal contracting as soon as we can," Doyle said.