News and Finance

MWH Americas Inc. has responded to news reports accusing the Colorado engineering and construction company of overbilling and poor performance for work on the reconstruction of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, citing what it called "misleading, and in some cases, inaccurate information."

"We reject any suggestion that we are profiting unfairly from this disaster," Broomfield-based MWH said in a statement released late Friday.

MWH was responding to a report Wednesday by The Times-Picayune newspaper of New Orleans, and picked up later by other news outlets, on a draft report by the city's inspector general concerning MWH's performance on a city contract to assist with reconstruction efforts in the hurricane-ravaged city.

The Times-Picayune said the terms of the contract, under which MWH has been paid $29 million so far, have "allowed [MWH] to overbill the city repeatedly even as the bricks-and-mortar recovery work it oversees has lagged." The newspaper referred to "nearly $3 million in billing overages."

The Times-Picayune said it had obtained a copy of the report prior to its release.

In its response to the news reports, MWH said the draft report was "released to the press prematurely, prior to MWH having the opportunity to respond."

It did not specify what inaccuracies had been reported about its work, but said it was "reviewing the report and will have a detailed response soon."

MWH said it "was hired by the City of New Orleans to oversee one of the largest infrastructure rebuilding programs ever undertaken, at a time when the city itself did not have capacity to take on this challenge. Our team of dedicated employees and subcontractors has worked hard to rebuild after the unprecedented devastation of two severe hurricanes in less than one month.

"One-third of payments we have received from the city under our contract have been passed directly through to local subcontractors, who are Disadvantaged Business Enterprises. We reject any suggestion that we are profiting unfairly from this disaster," the company said.

"We are proud of our people and the work we have completed in New Orleans, and we are preparing a detailed response to the report, which will set the record straight."

MWH Americas is the U.S. arm of MWH Global Inc., also based in Broomfield.

The company is the product of successive mergers involving James M. Montgomery Consulting Engineers, founded in 1945 in southern California; Watson Hawksley Ltd. of High Wycombe, England, founded in London in the 1850s; and Harza Engineering of Chicago.

MWH has designed and built some of the world's largest infrastructure projects. As of 2009, had some 7,000 employees worldwide, including 600 in Colorado.

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