ICF faces performance fines

• By JOE GYAN JR.
• Advocate New Orleans bureau
• Published: Apr 26, 2008 - Page: 12A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The embattled private contractor running Louisiana’s Road Home program for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita could face nearly $1.7 million in penalties if it does not meet new performance measures, including closing 116,000 homeowner grants by the end of June, the state said Friday.

Virginia-based ICF International had closed 107,151 grants through Wednesday, according to the latest Road Home figures.

The newly announced performance measures, which ICF agreed to, are for the time period from April 1 to June 30.

“The aggressive performance measures provide an objective and transparent means of assessing the progress of the program,’’ ICF spokeswoman Gentry Brann said. “The entire Road Home team of 1,800 Louisiana-based employees will continue to focus on fulfilling the commitments of The Road Home program as quickly and as fairly as possible.’’

Paul Rainwater, executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority and the state Office of Community Development, said closing 10,000 cases a month is “no longer practical’’ because many of the easiest-to-close cases have been processed already.

“We believe ICF can meet this 116,000 mark by the end of the quarter, meaning that most of the cases will be closed this summer,’’ he said.

The Road Home is dealing with nearly 155,000 eligible homeowner applicants.

For each closing below 116,000 by the end of June, the state will assess a penalty of $500. The maximum penalty under that performance measure is $1 million.

ICF also must pay or legitimately reject, by June 30, more than 2,300 of the 2,900-plus homeowners who were found last month to have been underpaid. The company will be fined $250 for each unresolved “second disbursement’’ — up to $250,000.

Additionally, 500 people who already closed on their Road Home grant must receive their recently approved $30,000 elevation grants by the end of June, or ICF will be fined up to $125,000.

For the first time, the new performance measures also include benchmarks for the Road Home’s small rental property program for landlords.

The rental program had mailed about 800 firm commitment letters to applicants as of March 24, representing more than $64 million to fund about 1,500 total rental units. An active pool of another 4,000 applicants are beginning to receive commitment letters.

ICF must submit a loan summary to the state for approval in order to generate a commitment letter. If there is a large enough pool of applicants ready for commitment letters, the agreement announced Friday mandates that ICF submit 500 loan summaries for the state’s approval each month this quarter. For each loan summary below the goal, the state will assess a $500 penalty. The maximum penalty for the quarter is $200,000.