BILOXI, Miss. — Federal authorities are auditing the use of some $650 million designated for sewage and water systems in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.
Robbie Wilbur, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, says the Gulf Region Water and Wastewater Plan is being audited. MDEQ hired engineering firms to draft the plan.
Wilbur says the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is auditing the plan. HUD officials wouldn't comment.
In June, an Associated Press investigation found that officials spent millions on sewage and water systems that may not be needed for decades.
There were other mistakes. Officials in Harrison County spent $457,000 on a half-acre for a water tank, but there had been an electrical transformer there in the 1960s and that created contamination concerns.