Louisiana government contractor may be overbilling for thousands of dollars more

Fox 8‘s, Lee Zurik investigates one Louisiana government contractor that appears to be over-charging FEMA and local Sheriff’s department. Benetech, and it’s owner Aaron Bennett, have made millions of public dollars since Katrina by overcharging for their employees. One former employee of Benetech, Joddie Crenshaw, agreed to be interviewed by Zurik, and stated that for the job he did, he worked about 40 or 50 hours total. However, Fox 8 discovered in the invoices that Benetech billed the Sheriff’s office and FEMA for nearly 1200 hours of work.

“Benetech billed the Sheriff, and FEMA, a rate of almost $148 an hour for Crenshaw.  So doing the math, that means Benetech may have overbilled $169,000 for just this one employee.

“I’m not surprised at all,” Crenshaw said. “For the simple fact [that] it’s how they did everything.  And it’s one reason I don’t work for them anymore.””