$300m Puerto Rico Recovery Contract Awarded to Tiny Utility Company Linked to Major Trump Donor

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dollar300m...rump-donor

Quote:Puerto Rico has agreed to pay a reported $300 million for the restoration of its power grid to a tiny utility company that is primarily financed by a private-equity firm founded and run by a man who contributed large sums of money to President Trump, an investigation conducted by The Daily Beast has found.

Whitefish Energy Holdings, which had a reported staff of only two full-time employees when Hurricane Maria touched down, appears ill-equipped to handle the daunting task of restoring electricity to Puerto Rico’s more than 3 million residents.

Much larger utilities are more commonly used following natural disasters on the scale of Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island last month.
The private-equity firm that finances Whitefish, HBC Investments, was founded by Joe Colonnetta, who serves as its general partner.

Federal Elections Commission data compiled by The Daily Beast shows Colonnetta contributed $20,000 to the Trump Victory PAC during the general election, $2,700 to Trump’s primary election campaign (then the maximum amount permitted), $2,700 to Trump’s general election campaign (also the maximum), and a total of $30,700 to the Republican National Committee in 2016 alone.

Colonnetta’s wife, Kimberly, is no stranger to Republican politics either; shortly after Trump’s victory, she gave $33,400 to the Republican National Committee, the maximum contribution permitted for party committees in 2016.

More to read after link.

Seems odd on first glance.

They were awarded the contract by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), not the federal government. The feds are disavowing any role in it. FEMA is contracting with Fluor.

https://weather.com/news/news/puerto-ric...hitefish-0

Quote:Despite questions swirling around a $2 million contract awarded to a small, untested Montana company to restore power, Puerto Rico supersized it Thursday to $300 million.

The way the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) initially recruited Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC, raised questions from industry insiders because ordinarily after a disaster, a state or territorial government will use mutual aid agreements to get help from highly experienced and well-known public utilities across the United States. They scramble to get workers and bucket trucks to the stricken state or territory.

But Puerto Rico turned to Whitefish, a 2-year-old company little known within public power circles and with a small number of actual employees. Whitefish is relying on subcontractors to recruit and deploy most of the 1,000 electrical workers and equipment it will need to restore power. It has about 300 workers in place.

Concerns about the pace of restoration efforts had raised concerns. FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – both disavowing any role in the Whitefish contract – this week announced they were awarding a separate $240 million contract to Irving, Texas-Fluor Corporation to help stand up an estimated 50,000 utility poles and 6,500 miles of cable.

Quote:PREPA spokesperson, Carlos Monroig Acevedo said FEMA is providing the money for the Whitefish contract and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is supervising both the award of the contract and the work being done.

But Corps spokesperson Catalina Carrasco said earlier this week the Corps has had nothing to do with the Whitefish contract – either in terms of its award or overseeing the work being done. She reiterated that position today after Whitefish announced the contract was valued at $300 million.

“Our prior comments are still valid,” she wrote in an email Friday.

FEMA has said it has no record of any dealings with Whitefish. To date, it has approved more than $200 million in disaster assistance payments to PREPA to restore power. The Puerto Rican power authority is in bankruptcy proceedings facing $9 billion in debts and currently generating little or no revenue.

Quote:FEMA spokesperson Daniel Llargues said Friday that FEMA hasn't received any request from PREPA for money to reimburse Whitefish. When it does, he added, FEMA will make sure PREPA adhered to all relevant procurement guidelines.

Quote:Typically, immediately after a disaster, the American Public Power Association – a public utilities trade group – emcees a conference call with its membership – 1,100 public utilities across the country – to get all the needed line workers and bucket trucks to the stricken area as soon as possible under what are called mutual aid agreements. For instance, the public power association facilitated the rapid deployment of many thousands of workers and their equipment to Texas and Florida after hurricanes Harvey and Irma struck.

But the Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority (PREPA) took a different route after Maria’s 155 mph winds decimated the island’s already-failing electrical grid on Sept. 20, leaving 3.4 million residents, hospitals and businesses without electricity – possibly for months.

When the power association convened its conference shortly after Maria struck, PREPA told participants it wouldn’t need the network’s help because it had already contracted with Whitefish.

“It’s a bit unclear why PREPA chose to go down that route, especially considering the offer was made to them for this mutual aid from the American Public Power Association that apparently wasn’t taken advantage of,” said Cathy Kunkel, an energy analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a non-profit that focuses on utility issues.

Sounds more like business as usual in Puerto Rico than anything else. Whitefish was probably willing to give more kickbacks than anybody else.

The entire grid on the island has to be rebuilt. This is just a subcontractor

There is going to be some epic bribes and kickbacks to PR politicians.

(10-24-2017 12:57 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Seems odd on first glance.

Lowest bidder?

I call fabrics. Nobody can get a contract that size with no past performance and it sure as schit isn't showing up on any of my resources. The FAR wouldn't allow it and, if true, the contract would already be terminated for convenience and the contracting officer in jail. Furthermore, nobody put their arse on the line over $25,400 in donations. What is the contract number and how do these loons come up with this schit?

An attempt to implicate Trump by PR Democrats.

Wouldnt surprise me if they werent working with the FBI to bust some Peurto Rico political asshats.

(10-24-2017 03:13 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  Wouldnt surprise me if they werent working with the FBI to bust some Peurto Rico political asshats.

That's what happened in New Orleans after Katrina.

A report I heard on NPR was that this company had expertise in getting people into mountainous territory to rebuild power lines. Some of those lines go into places only reachable by helicopters. No I don't have a link but surely someone else heard it today.

(10-24-2017 08:31 PM)BEARCATDALE Wrote:  A report I heard on NPR was that this company had expertise in getting people into mountainous territory to rebuild power lines. Some of those lines go into places only reachable by helicopters. No I don't have a link but surely someone else heard it today.

I didn't hear it today or on NPR but I did hear the same thing a couple days ago. The problem I see is the fact that they don't have many employees and are hiring people right now to go work there so I doubt the possible expertise angle is valid. PREPA could have got full crews with that experience had they requested it from the APPA but I doubt that they would have got the kickbacks they are most likely looking for.

(10-24-2017 12:57 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Seems odd on first glance.

No it's not odd at all JD decided to back out on his bet to help alleviate his TDS syndrome.

(10-24-2017 10:10 PM)Bull_Is_Back Wrote:  

(10-24-2017 12:57 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Seems odd on first glance.

No it's not odd at all JD decided to back out on his bet to help alleviate his TDS syndrome.

Yup, just like all of those moronic coastal elitist Hollywood types that pledged to leave this country if Trump were to win; yet, we still see and hear their crap despite the fact that an honorable outcome would be for them to honor their threats and move offshore and spout their stupidity from a foreign land.