SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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) 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.