Whitefish halts power work in Puerto Rico over $83M owed

[Zorro]

Source: AP

Whitefish Energy Holdings said late Monday that it was halting work to help restore power in Puerto Rico because the U.S. territory's government has not paid crews as part of a contract that led to accusations of overcharging and incompetence and contributed to the resignation of the power company director.

The Montana-based company said in a statement that invoices for work done in October are outstanding and that it can no longer keep working. The Associated Press obtained a letter dated Nov. 19 and signed by Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski saying that Puerto Rico's government owes Whitefish more than $83 million and that the company would suspend work on Monday if it wasn't paid.

Whitefish said in the letter that the lack of payments is a breach of the $300 million contract that the administration of Gov. Ricardo Rossello cancelled last month. Even though the contract had been cancelled, both sides agreed Whitefish would complete its current projects and remain in Puerto Rico until Nov. 30.

"There is no basis for PREPA to withhold payments from Whitefish Energy," the letter said, referring to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. "We have met the terms of the contract — including completing difficult work on time and under challenging conditions."

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/whitefish-halts-power-puerto-rico-over-83m-owed-025310680.html

[rzemanfl]

1. Yep, a ten, bigly Drumpf. n/t

[Turbineguy]

2. That poor company.

Last edited Wed Nov 22, 2017, 11:45 AM - Edit history (1)

It's like working for trump.

[Abouttime]

10. That poor company?

Screw them, I hope they don't collect one cent. They deserve to go bankrupt, they are repukes.

[brush]

3. Wasn't that 300m contract voided a few weeks ago because of the apparent cronyism...

between Interior Secretary Zinke and a neighbor, the owner of the two-man company?

The official in PR who awarded the contract just had to resign last week.

Wonder why Whitefish is still working there?

[groundloop]

4. It's in the article - Whitefish was to complete all work which had been started

Which of course is a backdoor approach to allowing them to walk away with a small fortune instead of a large fortune.

[brush]

5. Gotcha. Thanks.

[TexasBushwhacker]

6. They already completed $83 Million worth of work?

I find that hard to believe.

[kwalter66]

7. Well

When they are billing 300-400 per hour per worker for wages, 400 per day per employee for food and lodging and and and it doesn't take long to rack up a pile of money. Never mind the lines they were working are the same lines that just failed. Again.

[canetoad]

9. Me too

But didn't they have, cunningly, written into the contract that it was not to be audited?

[JawJaw]

8. And the reason why PREPA is withholding payments...

"Prepa said that pending payments had been halted after a Whitefish subcontractor contacted the authority requesting the stoppage because Whitefish owed them money. “Faced with this claim, Prepa had to stop the pending payments to Whitefish until the situation with the Whitefish subcontractor is clarified,” its statement read.

"

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/21/whitefish-energy-company-halts-work-to-restore-puerto-ricos-power-over-unpaid-bill

[ProfessorGAC]

11. Starting To Sound Like Zinke's Pals. . .

. . .were trying to pull a 3 Card Monte bit. So many angles that they hoped nobody would notice the gross overbilling.