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Senate committee opens inquiry into Luma contract, gives company five days to produce start-of-contract documentation
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Summary
A Puerto Rico Senate committee opened a formal inquiry (Resolution del Senado No. 1) into Luma’s contract and ordered Luma to produce documentation within five days proving it met several start-of-contract requirements, citing missing metrics and public-records concerns.
The Senate Committee opened a hearing on Aug. 3, 2021, to begin an investigation under Resolution del Senado número uno into the award and early execution of Luma’s transmission and distribution contract. The committee president said the inquiry follows earlier findings that Luma had not submitted required start-of-contract metrics on time and that key public records requested in court proceedings remained outstanding.
The committee gave Luma a five-day deadline to provide evidence that it met four specific start-of-contract requirements: the emergency response plan, physical security plan, vegetation-management plan and the transition plan. "Le vamos a dar un término de cinco días para que usted nos pueda proveer la información de que se cumplieron con todos los requisitos," the committee president said, listing the items the committee wants in the record.
The hearing included presentations from Luma and the Autoridad para las Alianzas Público Privadas (AAP). An AAP representative read the authority’s submission on the scope of the resolution, which orders the Senate Government Commission to investigate the contract award, contract compliance, contract clauses and conditions, impacts on employees, and fiscal and billing effects on consumers.
Committee members pressed Luma and AAP on oversight roles and on whether responsibilities in the AAP’s written statement unintentionally assigned contract powers to the Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica that belong to AAP under the contract. AAP’s counsel said the ponencia would be revised to substitute references to the authority with the AAP acronym to make the administrative roles clearer.
Luma’s representatives said some documents are subject to active court proceedings and cannot be produced now, but the committee asked for personnel-distribution counts (not names) and other non-confidential materials within the five-day window. The committee said it will use those records to assess whether public funds and federally funded projects were being managed and reported according to contractual and regulatory requirements.
The hearing concluded with the committee reiterating its oversight role and the next procedural step: Luma must deliver the requested documents within five days where not barred by court orders; the committee will review those materials before scheduling further action.
