Sei sulla pagina 1di 6

Bront Bird

CEO
September 5, 2019

The Honorable Wanda Vazquez Garced


Governor
Government of Puerto Rico
La Fortaleza
63 Calle Fortaleza
San Juan, PR, 00901

Dear Governor Vazquez Garced:

I write to you again in follow up to my email dated August 15, 2019, in which I introduced
you to the Foreman Electric team (Foreman, IBM, ABB, MLI), and provided you the
background information in regards to our contracting debacle with PREPA. Since the date
of my last email correspondence to you, PREPA leadership has made no advancement
on the power grid.

Based on my company’s knowledge of regulatory issues and direct conversations with


the agencies involved with this process, it has been made quite clear that Foreman’s
experience and frustrations with PREPA are not unique. I can tell you unequivocally that
FEMA executives have told our representatives, to their faces, that they believe for
themselves that PREPA executives have directly been involved in intentionally hiding and
withholding invoices like ours (standing $125 million dollar invoice for equipment under
the required mobilization.) These FEMA executives believe that invoices, along with
certain project worksheets have been sent back and forth with COR3 in an active scheme
to keep work from being started. For the people of this great Island, I pray that is not true.

As a reminder, Foreman Electric is now in our 18th month of standby to begin the redesign
and reconstruction of the power grid. As described in my previous email to you, dated
August 15, 2019, this means 18 months of telling our story to every relevant person in the
government, rather than doing the work that my company won via a highly competitive
RFP process, and was contracted to perform. I do not believe that 18 months of forced
waiting and purposely inflicted damage by PREPA is lost on anyone at this point.

1
I witnessed your mention of our contract during your press conference before the arrival
of Hurricane Dorian. It was a brilliant political move and made your cabinet look strong
and prepared for the hurricane. However, I want you to know that the only reason PREPA
has a contract extension with Foreman, that is currently in place for this storm season, is
because I personally met with PREPA leadership to explain how catastrophic it would be
to allow hundreds of powerline trucks to leave the island at a time where they would be
in such desperate demand. (I can provide all email correspondence to confirm that
cancelling my contract and allowing this to happen was precisely their stated intent.)
Could you imagine if a hurricane were to ravage this island and Foreman’s resources
were gone because PREPA leadership chose to send them home in the height of the
storm season? As an industry expert, I know that as I write this email there are 40,000
lineman all working on Hurricane Dorian in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia.
Separately there are an additional 25,000 lineman working at storm rates in California,
due to PG&Es mandate to replace aged equipment that started the wild fires. Add this on
top of fact that everyday PREPA is in the news for either bankruptcy, corruption, or
incompetence, and the fact that multiple contractors are still owed from Hurricane Maria,
one would understand that the ability for Puerto Rico to get help here would be an uphill
battle. It would seem that keeping a contractor who is physically on the island, and even
after being inflicted so much damage, is still willing to stay and support, would be a top
priority for the government of Puerto Rico.

I mention the above because it is quite clear that PREPA leadership continues to stall my
company from working and attempts to do as much financial damage to Foreman Electric
as possible. As I write this, PREPA leadership refuses to have any conversations with me
whatsoever, they communicate through “lower ranking” employees who have no concept
of the magnitude of what is at stake for Puerto Rico. Further, these “lower ranking”
employees are left in the dark and provide conflicting information at each exchange I have
with them. In fact, Mr. Jose Ortiz, wrote me an email barring me from speaking to him
directly or via e-mail. This is a childish way to conduct business and jeopardizes the lives
and livelihood of every single citizen on this island!

Governor Vazquez, with all due respect, we have spent over $31 million dollars keeping
this footprint of manpower and equipment on the island, as it was a written requirement
of the RFP and contract to be fully mobilized by April 15th of 2018. To say that I am not
committed to seeing this through to the end, no matter the cost, would be incorrect. The
implications of the additional $XX,XXX,XXX we have had to spend in Washington DC
doing nothing other than protecting ourselves from the pruriently obvious attempt to
circumvent and remove Foreman, are massive. The resources we have had, and continue
to have to use in Washington DC, for no other purpose than to provide transparency on
our situation and defend our position, I fear risks bringing harm to our mutual interests.

2
The reason I mention this to you is that it seems you have employees at PREPA who
blatantly have not explained, or outright misconstrued the following facts to you:

1.) Our existing contract [2019-P000057] has been approved by PREPA Board
Resolution #4614 (attached on email), which clearly states that Foreman Electric’s
contract is for “all future work, (both) emergency and permanent….(which) will
continue beyond the near-term restoration into a period of longer-term recovery
and rebuilding.”
a. This clearly states our contract was, from inception, intended for both
emergency and permanent work, contrary to Mr. Ortiz’s stance.
b. This clearly states our contract was the intended contract vehicle for the
long term recovery efforts.
2.) Our existing contract has been approved by the FOMB.
3.) PREPA on its cash flow statements expresses our contract, by name, with a value
of $618.8 million associated with it.
a. This allocation on the cash flow report clearly states that it is for permanent
work, clearly contradicting Jose Ortiz’s stance that Foreman’s contract is
only for Emergency Work. (Everyone in Washington has seen this.)
4.) This work was Federally funded well over a year ago. Congress made the
appropriation of around $1.8 billion (PREPA Board Resolution #4614 confirms at
least $1.4 billion). This money was sent to the OMB, and much was dispersed to
FEMA.
a. PREPA only spent $400 million of this appropriation with COBRA…..
everyone is well aware there is still $1 billion dollars of funding available
from that appropriation. This has been confirmed by my regulatory team.
5.) Foreman Electric has a $125 million dollar standby invoice that Mr. Ortiz refuses
to acknowledge or submit to FEMA (attached in email).
a. This is the major reason why he is constantly trying to get me to take on a
“new contract,” in an attempt to nullify my contract and invoice.
i. Admittedly, I believe if I was in his shoes, I too would be embarrassed
to admit the folly of letting hundreds of resources sit on standby while
I continued to pay the corrupt company of Cobra double the rates of
Foreman.
6.) Foreman Electric has an all-inclusive Project Worksheet that everyone in DC has
already seen and supports on a bi-partisan basis (attached in email), yet Jose Ortiz
and CORE3 refuse to even submit it to FEMA.
a. No other PWs are being obligated for funding, yet he refuses to submit a
PW that he knows, by direct account, is supported by every relevant party
in Washington.

3
As the Governor of Puerto Rico, I believe you would agree that it does not make any
sense to have Foreman, whose work for 6 months in Puerto Rico was so exemplary the
US Army Corps of Engineers themselves wrote a letter of commendation, alongside IBM,
ABB, MLI, and the 3rd largest equity fund in the world, whom provides us hundreds of
millions of dollars in credit facilities, not requiring any release of funds from PREPA to
start work, rather just a notice to proceed, all sitting and spending valuable time and
resources briefing congress and the president every single day on the level of challenges
we face with PREPA, instead of helping the people of Puerto Rico. Further, there are
certain details that I feel you and I both can agree upon:

1.) We understand from the perspective of a citizen, business owner, and politician
just how important a robust power grid is to the economic and humanitarian interest
of Puerto Rico.
a. Businesses leave Puerto Rico or simply refuse to move here because of
unreliable power (would be fixed by Foreman NTP.)
b. Citizens and businesses pay outrageous prices per KWH (would be fixed
by Foreman NTP.)
c. Citizens and businesses are constantly stuck with inaccurate power bills
due to PREPAs archaic metering systems (would be fixed by Foreman
NTP.)
d. If a storm hits, the current distribution system and sub transmission system
is in FAR WORSE condition than it was before Hurricane Maria. Thus,
hospitals and other emergency services would be without power for an
extensive amount of time, placing people’s lives in danger; not to mention
a catastrophic hit to the economy from businesses being forced to remained
closed until power is restored (would be fixed by Foreman NTP.)

2.) PREPA has lost its credibility.


a. Whether we are discussing the White House, Republican Members of
Congress, Democratic Members of Congress, the Agencies (DHS, DOE,
FEMA, CDBG, etc.), they all have a massive amount of distrust for PREPA
(Ortiz sneaking in no bid contracts is a prime example). Outside of the fact
that I mentioned in my last email that our team is certain of these groups
feelings, it is pretty obvious to anyone given the fact that:
i. No money is being released.
ii. The President constantly accuses Puerto Rico of being corrupt in the
news.
iii. And just simple facts that even when CDBG released some money
before you became governor, NO MONEY for the power grid was

4
released. That was mentioned very specifically. I do not perceive that
to be a coincidence.
b. I want to bring your attention to something I feel that is important to know.
Ahsha Tribble worked directly under Mike Byrne. COR3 and PREPA’s idea
of marrying themselves to him and making him their poster boy is simply a
mistake of assessment of the political landscape. Mike Byrne will not help
or change any of the aforementioned facts. On the contrary, he was Ahsha
Tribble’s boss. That is not lost on anyone. I will leave it at that.

c. ALL OF THE ABOVE, IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, WOULD BE FIXED WITH


FOREMAN’S NOTICE TO PROCEED.

Thus, I say all of this to present a solution…

As the Governor of Puerto Rico, you have the ability to correct these problems and restore
confidence from the perspective of the United States Government and from the people of
Puerto Rico. Both contractually and legally, you have the direct authority and ability to
resolve the problems caused by PREPA mismanagement.

In Foreman’s Contract (provided via attachment) there is a section under Article 38,
located on page 25 that says the following:

ARTICLE. 38. Mandatory Clauses Pursuant Act 3-2017 and Circular


Letter 141-17 dated January 30, 2017
(1) Both parties acknowledge and agree that the contracted services herein may be
provided to another entity of the Executive Branch which enters into an interagency
agreement with PREPA or by direct disposition of the office of the Chief of Staff.
These services will be performed under the same terms and conditions in terms of
hours of work and compensation set forth in this Contract. For the purpose of this
clause, the term "entity of the Executive Branch" includes all agencies of the
Government of Puerto Rico, as well as all instrumentalities and public corporations.

This clause gives YOU, the honorable Governor of Puerto Rico, the power to do the right
thing for your citizens in two steps.
1. The Project Worksheet (attached) should be submitted by you directly to
FEMA. This document is fully supported on bi-partisan basis in the House,
Senate, Executive Branch, and Administrative Agencies (these agencies have
seen a copy of this Project Worksheet and have been waiting on the official
submission of it to FEMA since January)

5
2. Issue and submit Foreman Electric’s notice to proceed (NTP), which is attached
on this email as well.

Foreman Electric, IBM, ABB, and MLI are willing to self-finance this work without the
Project Worksheet being obligated, and thus assume all of the risk. We feel extremely
confident this Project Worksheet will be obligated in a very short amount of time. This
proposal places literally no financial risk to Puerto Rico or PREPA’s budget. Our team is
willing to walk what we talk.

As you review this Project Worksheet you will find the plans for the power grid that are
literally unlike any power grid in the world. This can and will be Puerto Rico’s grid.

If you need or would like to discuss any of this further, I am available for a meeting at your
beck and call. This situation gets worse by the day. I ask you to do the right thing Governor
Vazquez, the people of Puerto Rico deserve it.

Bront Bird
CEO
Foreman Electric

Potrebbero piacerti anche