Puerto Rico's problems won't be solved if they fire the help

-
Next time someone complains about how long it is taking to get things resolved in Puerto Rico suggest to that the problems are both self-inflicted by the Government of Puerto Rico and by politicians in Washington who put political nonsense ahead of getting problems solved..

I've taken an interest in the story about the Montana firm hired to help restore power in Puerto Rico because it hits close to where I live and today the Government of Puerto Rico cancelled the contract of that Montana firm.  I just have to share some observations.

We've heard stories of people dying and of the suffering in Puerto Rico that have taken place since the Hurricane hit.  By all news accounts, the lack of power is a significant contributor to the lack of progress in efforts to fix things down there.  In fact, today's news articles say that 70% of Puerto Rico's population is without power. 

The Montana company has 100 people on the ground right now, fully provisioned - they have all the tools they need, they have shelter, they have food and water, etc.  Those people were making good progress toward restoring power at key sites.

 So what does cancelling this contract do?  From a story on the CNBC website:

"Ricardo Ramos, the CEO of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) noted that cancelling the contract may set back power restoration efforts an additional 10 to 12 weeks." 

Great - supposedly people are dying and lack of power is a major contributor and the solution is to fire a contractor that has feet on the ground and set back efforts to restore power by 10 to 12 weeks.

The Governor of Puerto Rico has moved quickly after the cancellation of the contract.  The first thing he is doing is to appoint a bureaucrat to oversee how the power company is spending money, because adding layers of bureaucracy always speeds things up, as does setting up the possibility of conflicts between the company and the bureaucrat over how to spend money.  

By most news accounts, the Puerto Rico power company has been badly run for quite some time and some government oversight was probably needed for a while.  But why now?  Why when you're in a crisis and need to move fast?  And why add to the complexity of procurement instead of simplifying the process of procurement? 

The next thing the Governor did was establish mutual aid agreements with New York and Florida to get replacement workers from those States.  That's great.  But why didn't he do that the day after the Hurricane hit.  Or in the days before the Hurricane hit when they knew it was coming?  

As a result of outcome is that NY Governor Cuomo is now going in front of the cameras proclaiming that NY will have 28 people on the ground in early November.  If he was adding 28 people to existing efforts that would be great.  But that's not what's happening, instead Puerto Rico will get 28 people in November to replace 100 who are being fired today.  How is that better?   

Reminds me of the Popeye cartoons when Wimpy would say" I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."  Here Governor Cuomo is saying "I'll gladly provide you help in November for press coverage today."

At this point, if I hear of problems in Puerto Rico I place the blame squarely at the Puerto Rican Government and the politicians.  Their poor leadership helped create the problems and their continued poor leadership, as evidenced here, is retarding the efforts to undo the problems. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Biden Legacy

-
This week President Biden gave a speech reviewing his legacy in the White House.  Biden talked about the good he's done.  I have a different perspective, I see the deaths and damage that occurred in the last four years. Covid - more people died of Covid in 2021, when Biden was in office, than died in 2020, when Trump was in office.*  In 2020, the disease was new and testing was ramping up, treatment protocols were being developed, medical supplies like ventilators were in short supply, and multiple Democrat run States put in place nursing home rules that led to significant numbers of deaths.  In 2021, those nursing home rules were no longer in place, multiple vaccines were available, testing and supply issues had been overcome.  Despite those advantages, more people died of Covid in President Biden's first year in office. The Border - Laken Riley, Rebecca Morin, Jeremy Poou Caceres (a 2 year old boy), Rachel Morin, Melissa Powell and her son Riordan Powell, Ai...
Read more

H-1B Visas - theory versus reality

-
H-1B Visas are a good idea in theory.  People around the world want to come to the United States to work and live.  Why not invite the best and brightest.  Bring top talent to the US to help our businesses, industry and military remain the top in the world. Then there is that pesky thing called reality.  I've worked for small companies with less than 250 employees and companies with hundreds of thousands of employees, and companies in between.  I've seen the reality I'm describing. I'm sure there are some brilliant researchers and developers who have come to the US under this program.  But they are the exception.  The norm is that companies don't bring over the best and the brightest.  They bring over cheap labor.  Companies, seeking to get a leg up on opponents by offering customers lower prices, import labor who will work at a fraction of the cost of US residents doing the same jobs. If a person from Country X is doing the same job an Ameri...
Read more

The Biden Administration blew it on Covid

-
 It's about a year now since Joe Biden was sworn in as President and we can see the Biden Administration has handled the Coronavirus situation horribly.  The Administration had a fantastic opportunity to declare victory early in 2021 and put this behind us.  But they chose not to do that.  The Biden Administration dropped the ball on pursuing the things America needs to put Covid in the rear view mirror while offering a message of fear and dictatorial mandates, and wedding themselves to a bureaucrat who declared that he is the science.  The result was more Covid 19 deaths in 2021 than in 2020, strong disagreement and a loss of public confidence in the measures promoted by the Biden Administration, none of which is good for America. But it didn't have to be this way.  The Biden Administration took office with three different vaccines available to issue to the public and almost 1 million people getting the jab every day.  Shortly after taking office, Con...
Read more