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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is sounding an alarm over Puerto Rico's $300 million contract with a small Montana company to restore power infrastructure, amid concerns over the firm's tiny staff and lack of competitive bidding. FEMA will be responsible for paying for the work by Whitefish Energy Holdings, but the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the island's utility, entered into the contract. "Based on initial review and information from PREPA, FEMA has significant concerns with how PREPA procured this contract and has not confirmed whether the contract prices are reasonable," FEMA said in its statement.
[...] The Whitefish deal has raised alarm among Puerto Rico's leadership, Congress and others, and two congressional committees are investigating it. The contract was reached with no bidding. The company had two employees and little experience in utility work prior to Hurricane Maria hitting the island and is paying workers hundreds of dollars per hour.
The White House said Friday the federal government had no involvement in the decision to award a $300 million contract to help restore Puerto Rico's power grid to a tiny Montana company in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's hometown.
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president had asked Zinke about the contract and that the cabinet secretary said he had nothing to do with it. "He had no role in that contract," Sanders said of Zinke. "This was a state and local decision made by the Puerto Rican authorities and not the federal government."
Also at NPR.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 31 2017, @01:00PM (10 children)
There is no way they got the contract without Zinke's say-so. It would not even occur to anyone in that part of the world to step forward to work in Puerto Rico.
The tragic part is hiring a company from Whitefish would probably result in the work getting done and getting done well, because it's one of the last places in the country with a solid work ethic and a culture of honest dealing. Clearly the Puerto Ricans do not have the skills or will to repair their own infrastructure, because they still haven't done so. Or maybe it's their governor and mayor of San Juan blocking able Puerto Ricans from doing the work because they want that desperately to make Trump look bad. In any case hooray, the contract got cancelled so Puerto Rico gets to remain in the dark. It's a big win for Hillary, or the DNC, or something.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday October 31 2017, @02:30PM (2 children)
And the truism is that we have such a business in the real world, thus the above statement is incorrect by counterexample. While the company has handled nothing approaching the scale of Puerto Rico (apparently, their largest prior contract was $1.3 million for work in Arizona), they have done interstate contracts before. So it is natural for them to attempt to get involved in hurricane recovery work in the US (and Puerto Rico is part of the US). It's not natural for them to score such a big contract.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 31 2017, @04:49PM (1 child)
Whitefish is a small ski town. They are not global thinkers. Putting in a transformer across the border in Washington State hardly makes them "interstate" either. People in the West routinely drive that far to get groceries. It's as silly as it would be to say that they are an international company because they once delivered a coil of wire to Lethbridge, two hours away across the border.
For a company that size getting a $100,000 contract as far away as Utah would be a huge deal. A $300 million contract in Puerto Rico is a lottery win handed them by Zinke.
Despite that, as I said, it's too bad because at the end of the day the Montanans would have gotten the job done right, on budget, and on time because that's the work culture they come from.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday October 31 2017, @11:45PM
Arizona is not Washington state and Washington state is not across the border. Idaho is in the way.
$1.3 million in Arizona.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Tuesday October 31 2017, @03:35PM (6 children)
Whitefish had two (2) employees.
There is no way that all the people that Whitefish hired would have been local hires. More likely, their hires would have come from across the USA.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 31 2017, @04:53PM (5 children)
Sure, but they would have been managed by people who would have held them to that work standard.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday October 31 2017, @05:52PM (1 child)
So you're OK with No-Bid contracts?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 31 2017, @06:55PM
No.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday October 31 2017, @06:13PM (2 children)
Excuse me. You think two people with little appropriate experience could manage this? This was a disaster waiting to happen.
I don't believe the "we were not involved" statements, but even if they were to be accepted this would be an appallingly bad choice. And that it was no-bid is further evidence that it was a bit underhanded. The only valid reason I have ever encountered for a no-bid contract was when a modification was being requested to work previously done. (Not repair, modification.) In such case the prior contractor may well have site-specific knowledge. You can't make me believe that was the case here. I would be willing to listen to some other reason, but it would be difficult to convince me, as it goes against all prior personal observations.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 31 2017, @07:09PM (1 child)
I already said several times that the fix was in for them. We agree on that.
I believe they would do a good job because I know the area and its people well and have a high opinion of their work ethic and honesty. I further believe that "experience" with a disaster area like Puerto Rico regrettably does not mean what most people think it means. That is, the people at the relief agencies the public believes "know what they're doing," emphatically don't.
I've posted on SN many times about my first-hand experience with disaster relief efforts, so I won't rehash it here. Suffice it to say, I'll take competent technical people in a SHTF situation over a bureaucrat stamping his career passport at a relief agency any day.
Maybe the Army Corps of Engineers is a different story, but I can't say because I never worked with them. I'll let more knowledgeable folks weigh in on that.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:16AM
The Army Corps of Engineers is a mixed bag. Sometimes they do excellent work, and sometimes they do lousy work. I don't know what makes the difference.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.