DHS/FEMA/PUERTO RICO: “Questions surrounding a $300 million deal to reconstruct Puerto Rico’s electrical grid continue to reverberate as federal and local politicians began investigating the U.S. territory’s disaster-recovery spending.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency held a three-hour conference call earlier this week to scrutinize a reconstruction contract awarded by Puerto Rico’s public power authority to a tiny, Montana-based energy firm, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security.
More than a month after Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico largely powerless and destroyed much of its electrical grid, the public electricity monopoly known as Prepa has restored service to just over a quarter of its customers.
DHS is now one of several entities probing the deal with Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC, a two-year-old company that had two full-time employees when the storm hit last month. The governor asked that the DHS Inspector General complete its review by next week, while noting the contract ‘appeared to comply 100% with FEMA regulations.’
Lawmakers with the House Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the U.S. territories, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee also requested documents on Thursday surrounding Whitefish’s procurement of the contract.”
-Andrew Scurria, “Puerto Rico Utility Contracting Sparks New Probes,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 27, 2017 11:05am