Consequences of the hurricane Helene in Asheville, NC (Getty Images)
Horne LLP, the company that manages the management of homebuilding and recovery of Hurricane Helene in the west of North Carolina, is faced with a ban on state contract work in West Virginia.
The state officials informed the company based in Mississippi on July 22 that it was pursuing after a debarag or permanently participating in government contracts, according to a letter Received from NC Newsline.
The announcement from West Virginia was made four months after Horne had committed legal disputes with the federal government in which the public prosecutors claimed that the company had created fictional applicant information and submitted fraudulent invoices when they managed the scholarships for disaster reciprocal productions of the federal duration.
Horne has denied misconduct in this case and decided on 1.2 million US dollars.
Samantha Willis, who heads West Virginia’s shopping agency, wrote to Horne’s executives in the letter that the state “probable reason” had found for the company. She quoted a press release from the public prosecutor about the agreement.
“The details of the details shown during the investigation show clear and convincing evidence of” willful indifference “towards the interests of the public,” wrote Willis, “what the public through the waste of important resources for disaster restoration through improper settlement or at least a significant probability of severe damage through the abuse of money and the delay of Getting the profits for recovery of extraction. “
A spokesman for Horne said in an explanation that the company was “badly agreed” with the communication and prepared a formal answer.
“The announcement seems to rely solely on a press release in connection with a previous settlement, which itself did not contain any approval of misconduct and presented a one -sided characterization of events,” said communication director Meg Annison. “This trust is not only legally inadequate – it is fundamentally unfair.”
“The law of West Virginia is clear: The debut must be based on certain, justified reasons such as convicts for fraud, crimes in connection with public contracts or other serious misconduct,” continued Annison. “None of these applies in our case. The agreement was found voluntarily and without liability. It was a pragmatic resolution, no recognition of the error.”
Horne’s lawyers are in discussions with West Virginia officials and have “expressed concerns about the times and the basis of this campaign,” she added. The company has had 30 days since the letter was issued to submit its answer.
“We are confident that the announcement will be withdrawn as soon as the entire context is checked -including the conditions of comparison and our continued service to West Virginia agencies -” said Annison.
West Virginia’s Ministry of Administration did not respond to inquiries about comments.
The case of West Virginia dates from 2016 when Horne was contractual with the administration of the federal block money for disaster blocks. Almost a decade later, North Carolina commissioned her Monitoring of a recovery program that is financed with 1.4 billion US dollars From the federal government’s same pool.
Horne had informed North Carolina official about the possibility of a debar in West Virginia, said a spokesman for the NC Ministry of Trade, who awarded the Helene Recovery Treaty.
“The campaign has no influence on the authorization of the company as part of a federal program like Huds (Community Development Block Grant Disaster Funds)And we do not expect it to have an impact on our current contract with Horne, ”said communication director David Rhades.
Report of a general inspector, previously registered by NC Newsline, said that the US Department of Housing & Urban Development “does not pursue a cancellation or debar. It was one of the materials cited by a company based in North Carolina that was also on the contract and Protested Hores winning offer unsuccessfully.
A lawyer of officials from Horne and North Carolina pointed out that the report does not contain any official results or recommendations from the General Inspector.
The company’s Treaty of North Carolina was examined shortly after it was awarded by the state’s legislators. The Republican legislator remains careful before Horne’s commitment In previous hurricane recovery efforts that have been defined for years by accounting errors and functional disorders. But both the company and the state officials said that the state agency NC, not Horne, was directly responsible for these problems.
Renew NCThe state’s repair and reconstruction program of the state is now accepting applicants for single-family house accommodation. Several offices across Western North Carolina are open and the state has received more than 800 applications so far.
