U.S. contractors put money into Pierluisi’s campaign

The Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) documented that, in this four-year term, Pedro Pierluisi’s Committee received at least 115,000 dollars in donations from people who work for U.S. companies contracted by the Government of Puerto Rico. That figure is about 20% of the more than 556,000 dollars the governor reported from residents of the United States, according to data from the Office of the Electoral Comptroller (OCE).

The peg of the report is a “Blue Christmas” party on December 8, 2023, at the Fairmont Hotel San Juan, where the campaign raised more than 579,000 dollars. Five executives of Hill International — none residents of the Island — contributed 6,000 dollars that night. Since December 2022, Hill officers add up to at least 12,600 dollars registered for Pierluisi. Hill holds an 11.8 million contract with the Highways Authority as consultant on the Tren Urbano and appears as a subcontractor in the Housing Department’s R3 program.

CPI’s analysis points mainly at law firms, lobbyists and reconstruction firms. O’Melveny and King & Spalding — which represent the Government and PREPA in PROMESA proceedings — accumulate between them more than 270 million in contracts over seven years; lawyers and some relatives of those firms have registered at least 27,000 and 39,000 dollars, respectively. Lobbyists from firms with public contracts add up to at least 20,000 dollars.

In reconstruction appear Plexos Group (a 3,100 dollars donation in the company’s name was returned; executives contributed 5,350 dollars), DCMC LLC (more than 66.7 million in contracts; executives contributed more than 15,000 dollars in five months), Horne LLP (about 131 million in CDBG-DR contracts; 7,600 dollars in donations) and ICF (more than 621 million in contracts; three donations of 500 dollars).

Andrés Guillemard, the Committee’s finance director, told CPI that “a donation has never been solicited from anyone in exchange for something” and that the OCE has not flagged those contributions. Electoral comptroller Walter Vélez clarified that in Puerto Rico it is not illegal for natural persons of a contractor company to donate, but he favors amending Act 222-2011 to close the door on “pay for play.” House Bill 320, which seeks that ban, has been shelved for almost three years; later measures (PC 699 and PC 1676) also went without a floor vote.

At the federal level, U.S. government contractors may not contribute to incumbents or candidates; at least 15 states have similar limits. On the Island, money from those contractors keeps entering the campaign till while the bill that would cut it waits in a drawer.