If the contract withholds payment until deliverables are met, (and since they apparently haven't paid the $20M in expenses yet that appears to be the case, it wasn't a $300M lump sum payment), then the contract could have been legit, but expensive as emergency services contracts often are. Texas and Florida are still rebuilding after their hurricanes so it's not like there are a lot of power company linesmen looking for work.
Or is it buyers remorse where the government signed the first contract that seemed like it'd get workers on the ground faster, and now they think they overpaid?
I can't speak to the actual legal definitions of that but the optics are incredibly bad - e.g "Zinke [Interior Secretary], a former Montana congressman, knows Whitefish chief executive Andy Techmanski, and Zinke’s son had a summer job at a Whitefish construction site."
Whatever the company is doing now doesn't retroactively legitimate a corrupt contracting process.
Or is it buyers remorse where the government signed the first contract
There were no other contracts considered. It was a no-bid deal.
He gave varied versions on how they started talking, who initiated the communication the dates, etc...
I really suspect there is something awry with the contracting process something tells me we will know soon who really recommended that company and why did they not try getting a no advance contract from the other company like the american utility association people.
