Another Swamp Drained

[ZiprHead]

How Whitefish Energy Got $300 Million to Restore Puerto Rico Electricity

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/ryan-zinke-neighbor-puerto-rico-power-contract

There’s also the matter of how much Whitefish is charging, given that Puerto Rico is bankrupt. According to the contract, the hourly rate for a site supervisor is $330 while that of a “journey lineman” is $227.88. Subcontractors, who make up the bulk of the company’s workforce, cost $462 per hour for a supervisor and $310.04 for a lineman. Nightly accommodations are $332 per worker, and food is nearly $80 a day. The Post notes that only eight contracts over $20 million have been approved for Puerto Rico by FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers, and half of those have been for shipments of food and bottled water.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Obviously they are Republicans. Alligators are Democrats.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

That is incredible stuff. That $300 an hour rate at a 3.0 multiplier indicates that the employee should be getting about $4,000 a month. Of course, the multiplier is probably 10.0, which is the whole point of this scam. Oh, and who is betting that the linesmen are shacking up in a mosquito ridden motel that costs $100 a week, so that the company can hog in what is left over?

If you haven't put money on Sec. Zinke being the next one to leave, you best get in on it quick.

 

[Opoponax]

At least Blackwater and Haliburton were capable of performing the work---almost uniquely so.

This company? It had two employees.

It takes a truly stupid citizenry for this to be able to happen. There's really nothing else that can be said as to why this has happened. Yeah, the electoral system fucked us, but it still took 60 million fucking morons to vote for Trump. The United States is a stupid, stupid nation and that's why this has happened and why nothing will be done about it.

Oh, and first in with: remember when conservatives threw a shit-fit about Solyndra?

 

[barbos]

Why are you having a problem with a working man getting well paid ($36460.8/month)?
What happened to your outrage at stagnating wages of middle class?

 

[LordKiran]

Why are you having a problem with a working man getting well paid ($36460.8/month)?
What happened to your outrage at stagnating wages of middle class?

Are you serious or just trolling?

 

[Opoponax]

Why are you having a problem with a working man getting well paid ($36460.8/month)?
What happened to your outrage at stagnating wages of middle class?

What happened to your outrage at stagnating wages of middle class?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Why are you having a problem with a working man getting well paid ($36460.8/month)?
What happened to your outrage at stagnating wages of middle class?

Are you serious or just trolling?

Yeah, it'd be one thing if we were talking a 3.0 multiplier. But we aren't. Those workers aren't getting paid that much. They aren't getting comp'd that much for per diem. The GSA rates for Puerto Rico per diem are $91 a night for hotel and $51 a day for food. $51 is actually higher than I'm used to seeing. And hotels can be a bit more than the GSA rate, but this contract includes a markup of 4x and 2x on hotels and food. So for 200 people, that is roughly $50k a day in profit... just for per diem!

If I bid jobs like that, I'd never get work!

 

[funinspace]

Why are you having a problem with a working man getting well paid ($36460.8/month)?
What happened to your outrage at stagnating wages of middle class?

Are you serious or just trolling?

Why not seriously trolling?

Or more seriously, me thinketh it was humor/sarcasm...

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Are you serious or just trolling?

Why not seriously trolling?

Or more seriously, me thinketh it was humor/sarcasm...

barbos is Russian... Russians don't know humor as the concept is foreign to them, like good governance and love. barbos apparently thinks the free market in the US means that if a company is contracted to get $300 per hour for a worker, that the worker must be getting good pay out of it.

 

[barbos]

Why not seriously trolling?

Or more seriously, me thinketh it was humor/sarcasm...

barbos is Russian... Russians don't know humor as the concept is foreign to them, like good governance and love. barbos apparently thinks the free market in the US means that if a company is contracted to get $300 per hour for a worker, that the worker must be getting good pay out of it.

In Russia humor has you.

According to the contract, the hourly rate for a site supervisor is $330 while that of a “journey lineman” is $227.88

I understand $227.88 as working man getting $227.88 per hour.

 

[barbos]

Before landing a $300 million contract with Puerto Rico to bring back the island’s electricity after Hurricane Maria destroyed its power infrastructure, Whitefish Energy had just two full-time employees, and, notably, coincidentally, was based in the same small Montana Town of Whitefish (pop. 7,279) as the country’s new Secretary of the Interior (and Big Buck Hunter enthusiast) Ryan Zinke.

Ha-ha, we are not so different after all [/Putin].

 

[starwater]

Before landing a $300 million contract with Puerto Rico to bring back the island’s electricity after Hurricane Maria destroyed its power infrastructure, Whitefish Energy had just two full-time employees, and, notably, coincidentally, was based in the same small Montana Town of Whitefish (pop. 7,279) as the country’s new Secretary of the Interior (and Big Buck Hunter enthusiast) Ryan Zinke.

Ha-ha, we are not so different after all [/Putin].

JFC.

 

[KeepTalking]

barbos is Russian... Russians don't know humor as the concept is foreign to them, like good governance and love. barbos apparently thinks the free market in the US means that if a company is contracted to get $300 per hour for a worker, that the worker must be getting good pay out of it.

In Russia humor has you.

According to the contract, the hourly rate for a site supervisor is $330 while that of a “journey lineman” is $227.88

I understand $227.88 as working man getting $227.88 per hour.

Then you have misunderstood. An hourly rate of $227.88 means that the company is charging $227.88/hr for the labor. The lineman is making less than this. Typically, at that rate, the lineman would be taking home around $70/hr, but that is a huge amount for a journeyman lineman to be making. They are more likely taking home around $20/hr, and the company is pocketing the rest.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

In Russia humor has you.

According to the contract, the hourly rate for a site supervisor is $330 while that of a “journey lineman” is $227.88

I understand $227.88 as working man getting $227.88 per hour.

Then you have misunderstood. An hourly rate of $227.88 means that the company is charging $227.88/hr for the labor. The lineman is making less than this. Typically, at that rate, the lineman would be taking home around $70/hr, but that is a huge amount for a journeyman lineman to be making. They are more likely taking home around $20/hr, and the company is pocketing the rest.

Exactly. In more detail, there is something called a multiplier that is applied to pay rates for workers. The multiplier includes an overhead rate, cost of money, and profit. Typically cost of money and profit rates are established by government agencies if the contract is for one of them. The overhead rate is often subject to audit.

Overhead can be around 150%
Profit 15%

Add that to the actual cost of paying an employee, and you end up around in the neighborhood of a 3.0 multiplier -> pay rate * (100% (actual pay) + 150% (overhead) + 15% (profit)). Using this, we get to that ~$70 hourly rate that KeepTalking refers to. However, we damn well know that given a loose enough of a contract, that the worker won't get paid that much and that extra money is going to kickbacks and the bottom line.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I understand $227.88 as working man getting $227.88 per hour.

Ya, you don't understand capitalism. The working man gets about $10/hr and the rest of it is kept by upper management.

 

[barbos]

I understand $227.88 as working man getting $227.88 per hour.

Ya, you don't understand capitalism. The working man gets about $10/hr and the rest of it is kept by upper management.

Does not seem different from Socialism

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Ya, you don't understand capitalism. The working man gets about $10/hr and the rest of it is kept by upper management.

Does not seem different from Socialism

Both are socioeconomic systems designed to enrich the elites at the expense of everyone else, so they share many similarities.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Does not seem different from Socialism

Actually socialism is capitalism, with safety rules and greater profit sharing. At least, that is how it was supposed to work.

 

[Elixir]

Are you serious or just trolling?

Yeah, it'd be one thing if we were talking a 3.0 multiplier. But we aren't. Those workers aren't getting paid that much. They aren't getting comp'd that much for per diem. The GSA rates for Puerto Rico per diem are $91 a night for hotel and $51 a day for food. $51 is actually higher than I'm used to seeing. And hotels can be a bit more than the GSA rate, but this contract includes a markup of 4x and 2x on hotels and food. So for 200 people, that is roughly $50k a day in profit... just for per diem!

If I bid jobs like that, I'd never get work!

We bid a lot of GSA solicitations. I've never heard of any award like that one. It would be very surprising if there wasn't a slew of protests. I know there are loopholes that can negate any need to respond to protests, and if nobody else wanted to get involved, then it is what it is. We're lucky to get 20% on products sold through GSA unless the product is proprietary.