Who the hell even signed the Whitefish-contract?

[DetlefK]

There must be somebody, a person, who signed this thing on behalf of Puerto Rico!

So who did it? And what gives this person the authority to sign away the rights of various US government departments to look into this contract?



And how big was the bribe?

[fleur-de-lisa]

1. John Barron - NT

[Madam45for2923]

23. Meredith McIver !

[Angry Dragon]

2. I believe the Puerto Rico electric company

[B2G]

4. Correct.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/10/26/puerto-ricos-gov-rossello-orders-audit-whitefish-contract-fix-power-grid/803095001/

[Thomas Hurt]

3. gov't contracts are usually signed by a contracting officer on behalf of the fed gov't....

whether that is the case doesn't seem to be clear.....a CO in FEMA or a CO in the PR gov't?

[underpants]

5. Correct. As long as they are responsive and responsible

In the normal bidding process.

Responsive means they get the sealed or unsealed bud in on time. Whether work papers are required is set by the contracting officer.

Responsible means they have a bond. If they fail to do the work the govt cashes the bond and use it to pay another contractor to do the job.

This no bid is bullshit. Rife for corruption.

[Drahthaardogs]

7. No it's not bullshit. You need to read the FAR

If they did it with open competition it would take 120 days to award the fucking thing.

Federal Contracting Laws are broken

[underpants]

8. Sorry that's what I meant

The way THIS is being handled is BS.

I agree with you.

[Lee-Lee]

9. It's not a Federal Contract

[Drahthaardogs]

11. It has to be

What do you think it is?

[Lee-Lee]

13. It's a contract with the utility company

And the utility company is owned by the government of PR.

[Drahthaardogs]

15. Whose money is the utility company spending?

Are these federal appropriations or state?

[Lee-Lee]

16. Most likely at this point power bills and future bonds

I hadn't seen any indication that Federal funds have been specifically allocated for that yet.

It may happen as a "you incurred this debt rebuilding here is some federal money to clear that out", but that's to be seen. It would be unusual for Federal funds to go to rebuild an electric utility.

Typically federal funds don't rebuild utilities. You see them issue bonds and/or raise rates with a surcharge and eventually the costs are just passed on to the utility customers.

Since this utility of owned by the PR government that may change things, but I doubt it.

[Drahthaardogs]

17. No. They money is coded ALWAYS by appropriation

And is easy to track. If these are state appropriations it is easy enough to see. Just cross reference a number on "type of funds"


And you are completely wrong about federal funds rebuilding utilities. In the day I used to work on disaster relief contracts. It's quite common, but as noted needs the proper appropriation

[dumbcat]

19. Why do you think PREPA is bankrupt?

It isn't due to excellent planning and adherence to prudent rules.

And how would they be state appropriations? Puerto Rico is not a state.

[Drahthaardogs]

21. Appropriation is what the money is for

If the money was appropriated for a state or territory, they could theoretically do their own Contract.

Otherwise, it's a federal contract through a federal agencies.

The feds send monies to states all the time for them to Contract as they see fit.

[Lee-Lee]

20. It happens but it's not the norm

Here is an article talking about how the cost for Irma recovery will be passed on to customers, even though applying for federal disaster funds is also an option.

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.wftv.com/weather/eye-on-the-tropics/duke-fpl-customers-could-pay-for-hurricane-irma-cost-repairs/611666910

[Drahthaardogs]

22. There are actual federal contracts that do this

When a state of emergency is declared. USACE has some, FEMA has some.

What you linked to is something different

[Drahthaardogs]

12. It's a KO

CO is a commanding officer.

The contract is public knowledge. It should have the KO office symbol

[Drahthaardogs]

6. Contracting Officer with an unlimited warrant

Would be required unless something funny was going on.

[Lee-Lee]

10. PREPA- Puerto Rico Electric Power Agency

It's a state owned electric utility.

And even before the hurricane horribly run and managed, to the point they were billions in debt.

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. I'm thinking there were bribes and/or kickbacks n/t

[lagomorph777]

14. Stinky Zinke smells of Whitefish