Prometheus 6

"We're receiving disturbing reports that there may have been some conscious human error involved. There may have been some malfeasance," said Raymond B. Seed, a civil engineering professor at UC Berkeley who was then heading an inquiry financed by the National Science Foundation. "We're pursuing evidence of those stories."

"Conscious human error"? What the fuck kind of Economic Correctness is that?

Ex-Army Corps official pleads guilty to rigging New Orleans bid
By Ralph Vartabedian
Los Angeles Times Times Staff Writer
8:43 PM PDT, August 23, 2007 

A former employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pleaded guilty Thursday to rigging a bid on repairs to levees in the New Orleans area, part of a broader Justice Department investigation into procurement fraud in levee reconstruction.

The case marks the first criminal charges against an Army Corps official involved in New Orleans levees since Hurricane Katrina, a department spokeswoman said. It is likely to stoke fears that fraud has plagued the construction both before and since the hurricane that devastated the city.

The Justice Department said Raul Miranda of Houston supplied confidential bidding documents to an unidentified sand and gravel subcontractor and agreed to accept about $299,000 from the company.

Miranda was among the Corps officials who was selecting the contractor to improve the Lake Cataouatche levee, an eight-mile section of levee that protects Jefferson and St. Charles parishes to the west and south of New Orleans. The $16 million project is upgrading the lowest and most vulnerable part of the levee along Lake Cataouatche.