Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office calling for an investigation into the use of public money to reimburse work on the Puerto Rican power grid by Whitefish Energy Holdings.
“Recent media reports in multiple publications have raised serious allegations about the nature and circumstances surrounding the letting of a $300 million contract on Oct. 17 by [Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority] PREPA, the publicly owned utility company that serves the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, to Whitefish, incorporated in the state of Montana, to restore PREPA’s electric power system in the wake of Hurricane Maria,” the letter said.
According to the letter, the contract is concerning, as there are reports of inflated costs of time and material, the PREPA bidding process was too opaque and limited and that communications occurred at the time of contracting between Whitefish and senior members of the federal executive branch, including Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.
Whitefish is based in Secretary Zinke’s Montana hometown.
Whitefish has also fallen under criticism because the small company had only two full-time employees when Hurricane Maria hit the island.
“Today I am calling on the Government Accountability office to investigate the circumstances surrounding the multi-million dollar contract awarded to Whitefish, a brand new company with two employees,” said Cantwell.
However, a copy of the contract obtained by reporter Ken Klippenstein may prevent GAO from acting on the letter’s request, as it says that “in no event shall PREPA, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the FEMA administrator, the Comptroller General of the United States, or any of their authorized representatives have the right to audit or review the cost and profit elements of the labor rates specified herein.”
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello also sent a letter to the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security asking that his office conclude an investigation of the Whitefish contract by Oct. 30, 2017, so that a final determination can be made on the matter.
“Please note that I recently instructed the Puerto Rico Office of Management and Budget (the “PR OMB”) to audit the Whitefish contract to review compliance with all applicable Puerto Rico and federal laws and regulations. To this end, I am placing the personnel of the PR OMB at your disposal and instructing them to cooperate with your office in this or any other matter,” wrote Rossello.
Whitefish also recently got into a Twitter fight with San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz and threatened to withdraw their workers from the island. The company has since issued an apology for those tweets.
“Mayor Cruz and everyone in Puerto Rico – on behalf of our employees we would like to apologize for our comments earlier today, which do not represent who we are and how important this work is to help Puerto Rico’s recovery. We have a strong team on the ground, we are working hard and making progress. Our goal is to continue to do all we can to help everyone in Puerto Rico in this time of need,” Whitefish tweeted.
