Whitefish Energy contract bars government from auditing deal

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill



BY JOHN BOWDEN - 10/27/17 08:48 AM EDT

A deal reached between the government and a small Montana energy company located in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's home town prohibits the government from reviewing labor costs or profits related to the company's relief efforts in Puerto Rico, according to a leaked copy of the contract.

A copy of the deal obtained by reporter Ken Klippenstein reveals that the government isn't allowed to "audit or review the cost and profit elements" under the agreement, allowing the company greater discretion and secrecy for how it spends the $300 million to restore power to the island. Puerto Rico is rebuilding after two major hurricanes wiped out most of the island's aging electrical grid.

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Whitefish signed the deal with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), which also prohibits the government from making "any claim against Contractor related to delayed completion of work."

Link to tweet

The company has been the target of heavy criticism over questions as to why the small company, which only had two full-time employees when the storm struck, was selected for such a lucrative government contract to help clean up the island.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/357473-whitefish-energy-contract-bars-government-from-auditing-deal

[Turbineguy]

1. Is it possible that those two employees

know more about writing contracts than electricity?

[rockfordfile]

2. Whitefish is essentially stealing.

[Wwcd]

3. If they backed out now would they still keep the $300 mill?

Imagine what Elon Musk could do for PR with $300 million

[jmowreader]

20. Imagine what any electric company in America could do

https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/25/16362410/hurricane-maria-puerto-rico-power-outages-electrical-grid-destroyed

Puerto Rico still has its generating capability. The power lines are all gone, and no one down there knows how to build transmission lines. This is not a job for Tesla, but for people who can stick poles in the ground and run wire atop them.

[Stuart G]

4. Obsene...who made this deal??? Was it Trump himself?

[Bengus81]

5. Just like the phony "no bid" contracts during the illegal Iraq War....

300M of taxpayer $$$ shit off to that Company for those guys to do NOTHING. Draining the swamp eh Trump?

[PatSeg]

7. Yeah

It sure does bring back memories doesn't it?

[Rollo]

24. Trump drained the swamp and then filled it with raw sewage...

[jpak]

6. STOP THIEF!!!!111

and the GOP is all in a lather about Hillary and Russian uranium deals?

Really?

[dalton99a]

8. Nice gift.

[bluedigger]

9. Sounds like they have a nice racket going for themselves.

[groundloop]

11. And you damned well know that 45* will be getting a piece of that.

I see no other way that this could have happened other than 45* throwing around his influence.

No penalty for not finishing on time, no audits..... why isn't Congress raising holy hell about this?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Corruption you pay for. Benefitting the tRump-Republicon kleptocracy. . . nt

[KPN]

13. We pay for it all --but this is as brazen as it gets. Right up there with

Halliburton/Iraq.

[KPN]

12. From simple capitalism to now Trumpism.

We are screwed if we do not discharge this administration soon. We need action desperately.

[kacekwl]

14. What moron in our fiscal conservative government agreed to this ?

Or is that a secret too ? The only reason it's in there is so the bribes can't be traced.

[bottomofthehill]

15. Why is the Army Corp of Engineers not rebuilding this???

Why is the Army Corp of Engineers not rebuilding this??? Put their skill to work for the betterment of the country

[jmowreader]

21. The Army Corps of Engineers wont give Zinke and Trump their cut

Whitefish Energy was founded during the 2016 campaign. I doubt they’d still be in business if Trump hadn’t won. I want to know how much collusion there is between Trump, Zinke and this company.

[bottomofthehill]

22. Point taken

[groundloop]

16. It just became clear why PR had such poor infrastructure - crooked Governor

ANYONE that would sign a deal like this has their hands, feet, and anything else they can grab cash with in the cookie jar. I'll bet that a thorough audit will show that the Puerto Rican Governor has a long history of shady deals like this.

[dobleremolque]

17. A new verb ... or hashtag, at minimum....

"Whitefishing" ... to engage in a level of corruption truly breath-taking to contemplate.

[christx30]

18. I mean, there is shady, then there is advanced shady.

Wow. This is friggin' incredible. Who in the government agreed to this? Wait... nevermind. Too many names that would be this corrupt.
So Whitefish doesn't have to actually produce anything. The government doesn't have the right to look into how the money is being spent, and we have no way of pushing them to actually do anything. $300 million down the drain.

[Bettie]

19. Wow...so

they don't actually have to deliver on anything...ever and they get to keep the money.

[diva77]

23. This reminds me of the billion(s) in cash GWBush sent to Iraq that went missing

geez, $300 million is chump change for repug theft