Zinke attacks ‘dishonest media’ for asking questions about Whitefish Energy contract
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| "It's all their own fault!" |
Governor Rossello also criticized the US Army Corps of Engineers for failing to meet their goals in restoring vital infrastructure. - W. Collette
A two-person Montana energy company based in the hometown of Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is raising eyebrows after securing a $300 million no-bid contract to restore electricity to Puerto Rico. The island remains largely without power in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
The firm’s connection to both Zinke and President Trump has set
off alarm bells for both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, some of whom
have called
for an investigation into potential conflicts of interest between the utility and
the administration.
On Friday, Zinke fired back at critics, blaming the “dishonest
media” and “political operatives” for attempting to tie him to the contract. He
called the allegations “baseless” and claimed that he had no contact with the
company after the contract was awarded.
“Only in elitist Washington, D.C., would being from a small town
be considered a crime,” Zinke said.
Both Whitefish Energy and Zinke hail from the small Montana town
of Whitefish, which has a population of just over 6,300. Zinke’s son worked for
the company for a summer, and Zinke reportedly helped the company secure a
contract in Montana last year.
The company also counts the
Dallas-based HBC Investments LLC among its investors; Joseph
Colonnetta, founding and general partner of HBC, donated $5,400 to Trump’s
presidential campaign.
Zinke added that he welcomes “all investigations into the allegations” and “[encourages] the Interior Department’s Inspector General to investigate this matter fully.” The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security is already conducting a review of the contract.
Like Zinke, the Trump White House has denied any connection with
the company or the contract, saying on Friday that officials were “not aware”
of the massive contract, which was made through Puerto Rico’s government-owned
utility, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), and will be paid out
through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
“Our understanding is the decision to give a contract to Whitefish
Energy was made exclusively by Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority,” White
House spokesman Raj Shah said in a
statement released on Friday. “The White House is not aware of any
federal involvement in the selection.”
Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) have already
called for an investigation into the contract, asking the Government
Accountability Office to look into why Whitefish — a company with just two
employees — was awarded one of the largest post-Maria contracts to be handed
out.
“Among the principal concerns … are the potentially inflated costs
of time and material in the contract relative to comparable at-cost utility
mutual aid agreements; the opaque and limited nature of PREPA’s bidding process
that led to the contract letting; and the contemporaneous communications
between Whitefish and senior members of the federal executive branch, including
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke,” the senators wrote in
their letter to
Comptroller General Eugene Dodaro.
Two Republican congressmen have also asked the head of Puerto
Rico’s public utility system to retain all records pertaining to the hiring of
Whitefish, and turn those records over to Congress.
FEMA has also raised red flags regarding the contract, announcing
on Friday that it had “significant
concerns” about how the contract was awarded and noting that it had not
given preliminary approval for the deal. According to the contract, the
government is not allowed to
“audit or review the cost and profit elements” of the deal.
The company itself has balked at
requests for transparency, specifically calling out San Juan
Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz after Cruz raised questions about the
company’s deal with PREPA.
“We’ve got 44 linemen rebuilding power lines in your city & 40
more men just arrived,”
Whitefish tweeted to Cruz on
Wednesday. “Do you want us to send them back or keep working?”
Meanwhile, the majority of Puerto Rico remains without
power more than a month after Hurricane Maria — the largest power
outage in U.S. history. Trump has repeatedly praised his response to the crisis, giving himself a
“10” for his handling of the situation.
