The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday became the latest party to question Puerto Rico Power Authority’s decision to award Whitefish Energy a $300 million contract to restore the island’s hurricane-ravaged electrical grid. “Based on initial review and information from PREPA, FEMA has significant concerns with how PREPA procured this contract and has not confirmed whether the contract prices are reasonable,” according to a FEMA statement issued Friday. Whitefish Energy, a small Montana-based energy firm financially backed in part by a major donor to President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was hired by Puerto Rico’s government-owned power company earlier this month. Its contract bars several government bodies from auditing or reviewing the “cost and profit elements” of Whitefish’s labor rates, according to documents obtained by The Daily Beast on Friday.

Source: Huffington Post October 27, 2017 18:41 UTC