Reading comprehension, reading comprehension. A quote:
With the entire Puerto Rican commonwealth in bankruptcy, and the utility itself in default on $9 billion in debt, spending for the recovery is drawing scrutiny from the Trump administration and Congress. Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and José Carrión, chairman of the federal oversight board created to resolve the island’s long-running financial crisis, were summoned to Washington last week for a meeting with the Office of Management and Budget.
FYI, Ricardo Rosselló is the current governor of Puerto Rico – and president of the New Progressive Party. José Carrión is the current chairman of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico – recommended by House Speaker Paul Ryan. PREPA (Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority) is the one who made the decision to hire Whitefish:
The power authority, also known as PREPA, opted to hire Whitefish rather than activate the “mutual aid” arrangements it has with other utilities. For many years, such agreements have helped U.S. utilities — including those in Florida and Texas recently — to recover quickly after natural disasters.
Another interesting quote:
PREPA’s executive director, Ricardo Ramos, and a spokesman did not respond to emails asking why the utility didn’t activate the mutual-aid network. On a tour of the idled Palo Seco power plant, Ramos told reporters that Whitefish was the first company “available to arrive and they were the ones that first accepted terms and conditions for PREPA.”
Ramos said that the utility is “completely content” with the work Whitefish is doing. “The doubts that have been raised about Whitefish, from my point of view, are completely unfounded,” he added, saying that concerns about Whitefish were probably spread by jealous competitors.
Two comments here: ones that first accepted terms and conditions for PREPA? and jealous competitors??
The first one ‘terms and conditions’ sounds almost like some sort of kick back to Puerto Rican authorities and politicians – instead of just ‘git ‘er done’.
Jealous competitors sounds more like trying to divert attention.
Now some numbers – further down:
$330/hour site supervisor ($653,400/yr) – there will be more than one ‘site’
$227.88/hour journeyman lineman ($451,202/yr)
$462/hour subcontractor site supervisor ($914,760/yr)
$319.04/hour subcontractor lineman ($631699/yr)
Accommodation(per diem): $332/night, almost $80/day for food.
It also looks like most of the people doing the work may be native Puerto Ricans:
Whitefish said Monday that it has 280 workers in the territory, using linemen from across the country, most of them as subcontractors, and that the number grows on average from 10 to 20 people a day.
Looks like a lot of ‘padding’ there and I don’t think that the people doing the work are actually getting paid that. If we look at an earlier Whitefish contract – it was a DOE contract for replacing a ‘metal pole’ structure and splicing in 3 miles of new conductor and overhead ground wire (rewiring towers – for 3 miles) for a total of $172,000. This is a very low price for that type of work. Another previous contract was to Upgrade and replace part of a 4.8 mile transmission line in Arizona – for $1.3mil. I suspect that PREPA and other Puerto Rican authorities were looking for suckers for a little ‘pay to play’ – to be future billed to the US Fed and ‘hidden’ in all of the costs for Puerto Rico’s recovery. Whitefish is a fairly new and young company and likely a novice to dealing with entities that demand types of kickbacks (don’t do it, don’t tolerate it, report it)
NOTE: As also shown in the article, another engineering firm ‘Fluor’ has a $240mil US Army Corps contract repairing the power grid. I would have more questions of Puerto Rican authorities than of the Trump administration because the Puerto Rican authorities signed up Whitefish inspite of a current federal contract. I do wonder how much work ‘Fluor’ has currently accomplished.
The current Trump administration has many problems, there is no need to attribute something to them that really doesn’t belong to them or their fault. It almost looks like Puerto Rican authorities tried to continue their ‘slush fund’ at the expense of Puerto Rico.
BTW: Allowing someone to work as a ‘flagger’ on a construction site is not much of a perk, nor high paying job. – full quote to your section:
Whitefish Energy is based in Whitefish, Mont., the home town of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Its chief executive, Andy Techmanski, and Zinke acknowledge knowing one another — but only, Zinke’s office said in an email, because Whitefish is a small town where “everybody knows everybody.” One of Zinke’s sons “joined a friend who worked a summer job” at one of Techmanski’s construction sites, the email said. Whitefish said he worked as a “flagger.”
Another quote with respect to PREPA:
PREPA did not reach its agreement with Whitefish until Sept. 26, six days after the storm swept through. By comparison, the Florida utility FPL requested mutual aid before Hurricane Irma hit. The result was an army of nearly 20,000 restoration workers, including FPL employees, from 30 states and Canada at work on the first day.
On Oct. 1, FPL had teams assembled to assess damage in Puerto Rico. It posted notices in Spanish and English on its Facebook page: “FPL is ready to help Puerto Rico.” Florida Gov. Rick Scott mentioned the offer in a news release.
The Florida utility says it never received a reply. The Puerto Rican utility has not replied to offers of assistance from mutual-aid partners, according to the American Public Power Association, which coordinates such operations.
