Nsikahn Akpan, the digital science producer for PBS News Hour reports that the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority is actively investigating some employees that have allegedly been forcing businesses and residents to pay a bribe to restore power. PREPA has been in the news recently for having a warehouse that hoarded critical electrical equipment that was raided by Federal officials. Those materials have been provided to electrical contractors on the island to restore electricity to the storm ravaged island.
El Vocero, a San Juan-based newspaper, wrote that the employees under investigation for bribery had requested as much as $5,000 to reconnect power. PREPA declined to provide specific details about the cases, given the ongoing nature of the probes, but the authority is encouraging witnesses to come forward when incidents occur. Anyone found complicit in bribery will face criminal charges, a PREPA spokesperson said.
PREPA received the first three complaints around mid-November, less than two months after Hurricane Maria. The employees involved in those complaints who are now suspended, work in Ponce, a major hub in south Puerto Rico. Since then, more bribery complaints have appeared across the island.
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PREPA is no stranger to fielding accusations of corruption. In 2016, Puerto Rico’s Senate held hearings about the energy authority’s purchasing office, which bought and burned dirty oil sludge for 25 years while charging customers the higher prices associated with refined distillates. A class action lawsuit, filed by Puerto Ricans who said they were harmed by the burnt sludge’s fumes, estimated that customers overpaid more than $1 billion into the purchasing office’s slush fund.
Then in November, PREPA’s chief executive stepped down after Congress began reviewing a $300 million contract awarded to Whitefish Energy Holdings, a small private company from Montana. PREPA had agreed to pay Whitefish linemen $319 per hour, when the average salary in Puerto Rico for such work is $19 per hour.
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