Contract with Montana company faces cancellation

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico —The head of Puerto Rico’s power company said Sunday the agency will cancel its $300 million contract with Whitefish Energy Holdings amid scrutiny of the Montana company’s role in restoring the island’s power system after Hurricane Maria.

The announcement by Ricardo Ramos came hours after Gov. Ricardo Rossello urged the utility to scrap the deal for Whitefish’s help in rebuilding the electrical system.

“It’s an enormous distraction,” Ramos said of the controversy over the contract. “This was negatively impacting the work we’re already doing.”

The current work by Whitefish teams will not be affected by the cancellation, and that work will be completed in November, Ramos said. He said the cancellation will delay work by a couple of months because the government will have to find new companies to help restore power to the island.

Ramos said he had not talked with Whitefish executives about his announcement. “A lawsuit could be forthcoming,” he warned.

Ramos said the company already has paid Whitefish $10.9 million to bring its workers and heavy equipment to Puerto Rico and has a $9.8 million payment pending for work done so far

Federal investigators have been looking into the contract awarded to the small company from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s hometown, and the deal is being audited at the local and federal level.

“There’s nothing illegal here. … Of that, we’re sure,” Ramos said, adding that he welcomes a federal investigation. “The process was done according to the law.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has raised concerns about how Whitefish got the deal and whether the contracted prices were reasonable. The 2-year-old company had two full-time employees when the storm hit, but it has since hired more than 300 workers.