quote:

a government which is financially suspect

That's putting it mildly.

Corruption is everywhere. Long ago it reached the point of no return.

"Like DC?"
Chickenshit.

quote:

Originally posted by jehzsa:

quote:

a government which is financially suspect

That's putting it mildly.

Corruption is everywhere. Long ago it reached the point of no return.

"Like DC?"
Chickenshit.

They found enough cash to pay themselves 6figure bonuses in San Juan though.....

quote:

6figure bonuses

Tip of the iceberg, snwghst. The country is run on a cash basis.

Let's say you need to solve a street drainage problem that's affecting you. The crew will go in and inspect and advise you that the work required at least three weeks to fix.

"Is there any way to do it quicker?"

"There's always a way."

"Would this be enough?"

"See you this weekend."

On another note, they're still sending equipment down there. I passed an ocean going barge from Jacksonville (offshore) yesterday that was loaded with about 2 dozen bucket trucks and trailers and other electric company repair equipment headed for PR.

A big part of the problem is power distribution. They have to run their network over some fairly rugged mountain terrain, which got destroyed by the hurricane. Rebuilding that is going to be a bitch.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
https://www.aol.com/article/ne...-has-power/23320945/

One hundred days after Hurricane Maria touched down on Puerto Rico, power is back on for 55 percent of the island.

Army Corps estimates full power won't be restored until May.

The problem isn't entirely with power generation, which is at 70 percent of its pre-hurricane capacity. Some homes are still too damaged to receive that power.

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...lure-corruption.html

Decades of dysfunction, mismanagement and embarrassing abuses of power left Puerto Rico reeling well before the storm delivered a knockout blow, say obervers. Enormous debt, absurd infrastructure projects and a tradition of corruption have hampered the commonwealth's ability to get off the canvas.

Reckless spending sprees by a revolving door of politicians have turned the commonwealth into a bloated bureaucracy that can’t pay its bills and yet enjoys the benefits of a welfare society without any of the responsibilities attached to it.

For years, the island blew through billions of dollars in borrowed money.

Pricey and impractical infrastructure projects almost always got the go-ahead.

“Every town in Puerto Rico has a new baseball park," Emilio Pantojas-Garcia, a sociology professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, told Bloomberg News. “All these mayors were using borrowed money to build things that were underutilized.”

Multiple cases of corruption and greed by local leaders, government officials and inexperienced contractors surfaced, shedding light on the toxicity that is still very much a part of everyday life in Puerto Rico.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority - PREPA- has already suspended three employees without pay and says it is looking into another 25 reported cases of possible bribery in the days and weeks after Maria.

PREPA confirmed to PBS that all of the cases involve field employees responsible for restoring power.

El Vocero, a San Juan-based newspaper, said that some employees demanded up to $5,000 to reconnect power.

PREPA’s director was forced out in November after the utility, the commonwealth’s sole electricity provider, failed to call for help from its mainland counterparts after the storm.

Instead, PREPA granted a power-restoration contract to Whitefish Energy Holdings. It was a disaster of a deal and PREPA was forced to rescind the contract after public pressure.

PREPA was also accused of stockpiling supplies badly needed to help with rebuilding after Maria.

“The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority has become a heavy burden on our people, who are now hostage to its poor service and high cost,” Governor Ricardo Rossello, who is planning to sell PREPA to the private sector

The federal government recently awarded a $156 million contract to a one-person Atlanta-based company that was supposed to deliver 30 million meals to Puerto Rico. Owner Tiffany Brown, who had no disaster relief experience, got the gig but managed to deliver only 50,000 meals to the storm-ravaged island.

There have been problems with the housing situation too and now, the island’s largest restoration contractor says it will pull out of Puerto Rico in the next few weeks after maxing out its $746 million contract.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:

The federal government recently awarded a $156 million contract to a one-person Atlanta-based company that was supposed to deliver 30 million meals to Puerto Rico. Owner Tiffany Brown, who had no disaster relief experience, got the gig but managed to deliver only 50,000 meals to the storm-ravaged island.

Ms Brown sounds really qualified to oversee feeding storm ravaged victims...maybe she can also design clothes for them or perhaps offer to be a write-in candidate for mayor of SanJuan ...I do wonder how was awarded that contract...

From her "about me" page on her website...

http://www.tiffanycbrown.com/about-me/


"She has held positions with the United States Government Accountability Office, Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, Georgia Law Center for the Homeless, Georgia Conservation Voters, Supreme Court of Georgia, Equifax, Coca-Cola Enterprises, and Atlanta Bar Association. Upon Graduation from Walden University, she has truly impacted change as an academic and practitioner. Dr. Brown is a former 2009 Write-in Atlanta Mayoral Candidate and owner of 3 companies:

Tribute Contracting LLC, a minority owned government consulting firm (with Three FEMA Contracts over a span of five that equals 10.8 million and 1 million sales this year alone)
Tiffany Brown Designs- women’s clothing line
Tiffany Brown Holdings Inc.- Consulting firm that have five divisions: entertainment, vending, radio, food, nonprofit management and book publishing
Luxe Fuel- A beverage delivery software app"

quote:

Originally posted by Bisleyblackhawk:

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:

The federal government recently awarded a $156 million contract to a one-person Atlanta-based company that was supposed to deliver 30 million meals to Puerto Rico. Owner Tiffany Brown, who had no disaster relief experience, got the gig but managed to deliver only 50,000 meals to the storm-ravaged island.

Ms Brown sounds really qualified to oversee feeding storm ravaged victims...maybe she can also design clothes for them or perhaps offer to be a write-in candidate for mayor of SanJuan ...I do wonder how was awarded that contract...

From her "about me" page on her website...

http://www.tiffanycbrown.com/about-me/


"She has held positions with the United States Government Accountability Office, Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, Georgia Law Center for the Homeless, Georgia Conservation Voters, Supreme Court of Georgia, Equifax, Coca-Cola Enterprises, and Atlanta Bar Association. Upon Graduation from Walden University, she has truly impacted change as an academic and practitioner. Dr. Brown is a former 2009 Write-in Atlanta Mayoral Candidate and owner of 3 companies:

Tribute Contracting LLC, a minority owned government consulting firm (with Three FEMA Contracts over a span of five that equals 10.8 million and 1 million sales this year alone)
Tiffany Brown Designs- women’s clothing line
Tiffany Brown Holdings Inc.- Consulting firm that have five divisions: entertainment, vending, radio, food, nonprofit management and book publishing
Luxe Fuel- A beverage delivery software app"

Also from the referenced article

quote:

...Dr. Tiffany Brown is no stranger to hard work and putting forth a strong effort to create success....

So getting $156 Million to deliver 50K meals is $3,120 per meal (if my math is correct, but we all know math is racist). Must have been hard work to accomplish that.

I wonder, how many liberals denounce the conditions in Puerto Rico, ignore the corruption that clearly amplified the tragedy, blame Trump for the misery. And liberals promote the same type of gov't that Puerto Rico (and Venezuela. . . and California) have.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
A big part of the problem is power distribution. They have to run their network over some fairly rugged mountain terrain, which got destroyed by the hurricane. Rebuilding that is going to be a bitch.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
https://www.aol.com/article/ne...-has-power/23320945/

One hundred days after Hurricane Maria touched down on Puerto Rico, power is back on for 55 percent of the island.

Army Corps estimates full power won't be restored until May.

The problem isn't entirely with power generation, which is at 70 percent of its pre-hurricane capacity. Some homes are still too damaged to receive that power.

But a bigger problem is corrupt gov't who locked up power equipment in a warehouse looking for a way to increase profits from the disaster.