There were similar, loud complaints on the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina. Large contractors, working directly for the federal government (or in this case, the “responsible party” acting under the direction of the federal government), withheld millions in payments for legitimate, contracted work.
In this case, it’s a pair of cleanup contractors:
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Several companies hired to help BP respond to the massive oil spill claim the company or 1 of its subcontractors owes them millions of dollars for their work.
Ricky Myers, who owns Rhino Construction in Bay St. Louis, Miss., said Tuesday that BP contractor O'Brien's Response Management owes him $650,000 for his company's work on cleaning up beaches and barrier islands after the spill.
Myers said BP officials have assured him the company has paid what it owes O'Brien's, but other subcontractors say BP deserves some blame. Matthew Creel, who owns a Carriere, Miss.-based excavation company, said he is owed $60,000 and suspects BP is "trying to worm out of paying."
A spokesman for O'Brien's said he is looking into the companies' claims and couldn't immediately comment.
Last fall, a blog reader and business owner on the Gulf Coast sent me an email with almost identical complaints—that BP and/or its subcontractors were trying to get out of paying him and his colleagues for work they agreed to under contract.
That individual was concerned over making his complaints public and chose not to go any farther with publicizing his story on this site. I understood completely. However, maybe now that others are starting to come forward that gentleman and his colleagues would be interested in telling their stories.
I’d run them here.
Follow me on Twitter, and visit the Deepwater Horizon Incident Timeline, one of the only resources of its kind on the internet. It’s visited by interested members of the public, researchers and journalists all over the world.
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