February 6, 2018: Hey, Want to Make 2.3 Million Sandwiches - by Yourself?

 

2/6/18: The free press reveals the story of Tiffany Brown, hired by FEMA to send 30 million meals to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. At $5.10 per, the contract was worth $153 million. It turns out Brown is the sole owner and employee of Tribute Contracting LLC. 

What could go wrong? Brown can start making sandwiches in her kitchen or hire a wedding caterer. She hires the caterer. 

You can already guess this is not going to end well. The caterer has eleven employees. So, unless each employee, the caterer and Ms. Brown pitch in and make 2.3 million sandwiches apiece they’re going to have trouble meeting the FEMA goal. 

In fact, by the time FEMA orders Brown to stop work – because the contract is canceled and people in Puerto Rico are probably dead from starvation – Tribute has managed to ship 50,000 meals. 

The caterer reports having another 75,000 stored in a warehouse. Brown has been unable to find proper shipping. In terms of screw-ups, this is a classic, with Brown also failing to include the heating portion of what FEMA has contracted for her to provide: “self-heating meals.” 

Is this sandwich still good?

You may recall when Trump gave himself the highest possible grades on his efforts to deliver hurricane relief. Trump said he got a 10 out of 10. He was doing A+ work. General Kelly gave the president two gold stars to stick on his Presidential Briefing Book. Which he never reads. 

Sadly, this fiasco was not the only blemish on the Trump report card. Consider the less-than-stellar work performed by Bronze Star L.L.C. The company, formed only in August, contracted to send 500,000 plastic tarps and 60,000 rolls of plastic sheeting to Puerto Rico and do it for $30 million. When FEMA finally realized that Bronze Star wasn’t getting the job done the company had shipped a grand total of 0 tarps and 0 rolls of plastic sheeting. (See: 2/5/18.)