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FBI hands off as CISCO works on CUC’s engines
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Posted on Dec 28 2008
Since the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. began revisiting the sole-source contract the utility agency signed with the Commonwealth Industrial Supply Co. Inc., CUC has not heard from federal authorities.
Federal and local authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had been investigating the $885,000 contract between CUC and CISCO to repair six engines at Power Plant 2 because the money came from the federal government.
CISCO had ceased work on the engines earlier this year, but in October CUC executive director Tony Muña disclosed that the two companies were revisiting the contract and CISCO was once again working on the engines.
“This time around we’re ensuring we have a certain degree of reliability on those eight megawatts,” Muña said. “There were events between CUC and CISCO that precluded seeing that reliability.”
The initial contract was for 10 megawatts, Muña said, but in late 2006 CUC accepted eight megawatts of production. As of the middle of December, Power Plant 2 was producing four megawatts, and CISCO was working on bringing online a third and fourth engine.
Muña said federal authorities initially inquired about the contract before he took over as executive director. When CUC decided to revisit the contract, they went through the federal officials to make sure it was acceptable.
“They said they didn’t have a problem with that,” Muña said.
CUC entered into the CISCO contract without soliciting bids or proposals from any other company. Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez, according to the governor’s state of emergency declaration, approved the contract on May 14, 2006.
