Audit says University of Southern Mississippi should repay FEMA $5.3 million

From The Biloxi Sun-Herald: A federal auditor says the Federal Emergency Management Agency should demand that the University of Southern Mississippi return $5.3 million of Hurricane Katrina reconstruction money. The Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General reviewed spending that the university received to rebuild its Gulf Park campus in Long Beach, Miss., following the 2005 hurricane. The auditor said $358,000 should be returned because the university received insurance payments to cover the same damage. Another $2 million was duplicated by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, which paid for rent and renovations to temporary quarters at the former Garden Park Hospital in Gulfport. Findings also say that the university improperly awarded a $2.4 million contract for permanent and temporary repairs and a $453,000 contract for architectural and engineering services.