La. to pay Kenyon $119,000 a day for body recovery

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14659343.htm

La. to pay Kenyon $119,000 a day for body recovery

BATON ROUGE, La., Sept 14 (Reuters) - The state of Louisiana will pay Kenyon International Emergency Services almost $119,000 a day for two months for the job of recovering, documenting and handling the bodies of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, according to documents released by the state.

The contract between the company and the state's Department of Health and Hospitals runs from Sept. 12 to Nov. 15 at a daily personnel rate of $118,980, after a 10 percent discount. Kenyon also estimated expenses of around $639,000 for the first 31 days of its mission, covering everything from body bags to trailers to laundry services for its staffers.

Kenyon initially said last week it had been hired by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to recover bodies in New Orleans and elsewhere.

But on Tuesday Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the state had signed a contract directly with the company because the recovery work was going too slowly and Kenyon was threatening to pull out for lack of a written contract with FEMA.