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send_in_the_dronesAnne Branigin
11/13/17 4:39pm
The key is somewhere between PREPA and Whitefish. PREPA is bankrupt and has been, so it’s harder to get other utilities to help. OTOH if other organizations won’t get paid, then how does Whitefish expect to collect and pay their contractors? My guess is that the corruption part is assurances that the US Legislature will make a special appropriation down the line so that PREPA doesn’t need to find the money and that, in return, certain parties in PR will be rewarded for going along with the plan.
The amount of billing vs the amount of paying is a smokescreen from the underlying lack of details on how this financing could ever work, even at the lower rates the normal utilities would charge. Who enters a contract with a bankrupt company that has customers who won’t be paying bills on the regular for a year or more?
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  StartingOverAgainsend_in_the_drones
  11/13/17 5:15pm
  The more I read about it, this sounds like a classic price gouge. There may or may not be any genuine “corruption” at play here.
  One reason cited in a CNN money article for PREPA selecting Whitefish is actually a valid one that you touched on, namely that they didn’t require a $25 million downpayment like the other party. If Whitefish sussed out that their competitors were requiring a downpayment , nefariously sourced or not, then they know that if they don’t require the downpayment they have a lot more room in other areas of the contract.
  Also worth nothing that PREPA may be “bankrupt” but it does have some cashflow and likely will continue to. Certainly not enough to make this contract pay off in a reasonable timeframe, but still, even after Maria they still have cashflow.
  I also don’t know that it’s “corruption” for Whitefish and PREPA to say in a negotiation “We can’t pay you a big downpayment today, but we think that Congress will eventually pass a relief package that will include dollars that can be directed to getting the power back on”.
  There’s certainly nothing illegal about Whitefish being willing to make that bet and I doubt it’s illegal for PREPA, who has no power to actually force Congress to do anything, to assert that they think Congress will be persuaded. Their assertion has no power, after all. Now if PREPA were to say “We’re going to bribe some members of Congress to get this done” that would of course be illegal. But I don’t think they would have thought that was necessary.
  Hell, it wouldn’t even be illegal for them to call up a member of Congress during the contract negotiation and try to get their assurance that they would get that paid for in a relief bill. That would only be illegal if they offered that bribe or if they wanted to try and hide the money somewhere in the bill that wasn’t designated to get the power back on.
  I don’t think that’s a bad bet, either. A relief package was inevitable and it was definitely going to include money to get the lights back on, whether Whitefish, or any other winning bidder, had some special connections to the Secretary of the Interior or not.
  It’s also not crazy to think Whitefish didn’t need the down payment because Whitefish is backed by signifigant PE capital. They can afford to not have the cash up front to actually fund the beginning of the operations, especially if not requiring that downpayment makes it easier for them to price gouge.
  So if Whitefish deduced that other bidders were requiring a substantial downpayment PREPA couldn’t make, they knew they had the power to make the rest of their fee structure outlandish and still win the deal. The fact that PREPA needed work to start ASAP just made it all that much harder for them to negotiate a contract favorable to themselves.
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Cardi B's Other ShoeAnne Branigin
11/13/17 4:44pm
“We have to pay a premium to entice the labor to come to Puerto Rico to work,” Chris Chiames said.
Now they know they lyin. Why are these white folks acting like they’re were sending linemen to Afghanistan? And I know plenty of good ol’ boys who would jet to Afghanistan on their own dime for 1/4 of that.

Never mind. The answer lies within the question.
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  VinCardi B's Other Shoe
  11/13/17 4:48pm
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VinAnne Branigin
11/13/17 4:26pm
Whitefish, Candidates for the Scammer Hall of Fame, Billed Puerto Rico More than 7 Times What They Actually Paid Their Workers
They took that story about Jesus and the starving people and the fish multiplying the wrong way...
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SoapBoxcarWillieAnne Branigin
11/13/17 6:10pm
It would be helpful to understand more about how the contract worked to get an idea of whether or not this is improper (and how improper it is). Like, are they paid for time and materials, plus general conditions additional fees for insurance, overhead and profit? Or does the hourly rate have to cover a lot more overhead—like how a restaurant buys a steak for $10 and sells it to you for $40 or $50 because it has to pay rent, salaries/wages, and everything else?
Either way, it seems pretty clear that Whitefish never should have gotten this contract in the first place, since it’s questionable whether or not they have the capacity/capability to do this job, with little or no prior experience. The awarding of the contract was almost certainly improper, but the contract terms may be standard for these kinds of things (although if that’s the case, we need to change the standards for government contracts).
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jcn-txctAnne Branigin
11/13/17 8:21pm
Christ after reading this, I truly hope Whitefish electric gets a contract to do electric work for Russia because after Puerto Rico, I’m pretty sure they won’t get any of their bids accepted except in Montana.
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Wielder of Smashy-StickAnne Branigin
11/13/17 4:52pm
Whitefish workers are expected to stay in Puerto Rico and continue work until the end of the month.
I’m sure all of the people in Puerto Rico would see this as a positive...if there weren’t blackouts from the shoddy linework.
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CedricAnne Branigin
11/14/17 1:33am
That’s a “Trump” move, if I ever saw one.
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Whitefish, Candidates for the Scammer Hall of Fame, Billed Puerto Rico More than 7 Times What They Actually Paid Their Workers