Auditeurs : 183 des 198 travaux du réseau électrique restent incomplets

On September 14, 2026, the audit document that updates the grid thread is not the capacity audit OIG-20-25 on DTOP (cousin 755): it is the final report OIG-25-39, dated September 11, 2025, FEMA Must Provide Additional Technical Assistance to Support the Timely Rebuilding of Puerto Rico’s Electrical Grid. Project No. 23-010-AUD-FEMA. The memorandum is addressed to David Richardson, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator of FEMA, and is signed by Joseph V. Cuffari, Ph.D., Inspector General. The OIG incorporated FEMA's formal comments. The report contains three recommendations; FEMA agreed with all three. The OIG considers them resolved and open until FEMA submits closeout with evidence. Audit finding ≠ criminal conviction. Obligated ≠ disbursed.

The Highlights block summarizes the finding: FEMA “did not ensure the timely rebuilding of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.” Officials “missed opportunities to provide more assistance to Puerto Rico to manage its Hurricane Maria Public Assistance grant funds in accordance with Federal regulations and FEMA guidelines.” Specifically, FEMA “did not provide enough technical assistance and guidance to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to generate detailed statements of work and comprehensive work plans.” The objective of the audit, according to OIG itself, was to determine whether FEMA ensured that Puerto Rico managed María’s grant funds for the grid in accordance with federal regulations and FEMA guidelines. The response framework: Irma and Maria in 2017; presidential declaration FEMA-4339-DR on September 20, 2017.

The two progress figures that Highlights freezes “as of February 2025” are the ones that an editor should put in bold, with their temporary label: FEMA reported that 92 percent (183 of 198) of approved and obligated construction projects were incomplete; and that $3.7 billion of available permanent work funding “had not been obligated for construction of projects.” Incomplete ≠ cancelled. Available permanent work funding not obligated for construction ≠ “the money was lost”: it is available funding that, on that cut-off date, had not been obligated towards construction. In June 2024, FEMA received a revised work plan focused on three categories—generation, transmission and distribution, and water assets—that “lacked detailed costs, schedules, and performance goals.” The OIG concludes that, more than seven years after Maria, “FEMA does not know when Puerto Rico’s electrical grid will be completely rebuilt.” He cites as evidence of vulnerability the “complete loss of power on December 31, 2024.”

The body of the report gives the archeology of the obligation. Following the statements, FEMA “initially provided grant funding for emergency repairs and then provided grant funding for Puerto Rico to rebuild the island’s entire electrical grid, obligating more than $13 billion toward that end.” A note at the bottom of the Background specifies a broader total of grants: “about $34.7 billion” awarded from September 20, 2017 to March 31, 2025 —and clarifies that that $34.7 billion went to debris and other items, not just the grid. Do not mix $34.7 billion (total OIG cut award) with more than $13 billion (obligated toward the grid). The OIG describes FAASt (FEMA Accelerated Award Strategy, 2019): divide the grid into asset categories, calculate a cost estimate and force permanent work with a fixed estimate strategy, instead of calculating asset by asset. In that story, FEMA “obligated $9.5 billion to the Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority (PREPA)” in one stage; “By February 2025, FEMA had increased this obligation to more than $13 billion, including approximately $2.01 billion for emergency work, $10.39 billion for permanent work, and $620 million for management costs.” Emergency work ≠ permanent work ≠ management costs. Obligated to PREPA ≠ cash in LUMA’s account ≠ megawatts restored.

All three recommendations go to the FEMA Region 2 Administrator. Recommendation 1: “provide Puerto Rico with additional technical assistance and guidance for submitting detailed scopes of work related to fully rebuilding Puerto Rico’s electric power grid.” Recommendation 2: “update its guidance requiring detailed 90-day updates to work plans to enable FEMA to monitor progress and timelines for the entire electrical grid project permanent work projects.” Recommendation 3: “identify lessons learned from the Puerto Rico electrical grid rebuild and incorporate the need for improved guidance” —the PDF text cuts at the page break and picks up the thread in FEMA's response. FEMA agreed. For Rec. 1, Region 2 committed to training for COR3, PREPA and its affiliates, Estimated Completion Date December 31, 2025. For Rec. 2, to an addendum for PREPA that clarifies the 90-day workplan, same date. For Rec. 3, to interview stakeholders and produce a report of lessons learned, same date. The OIG left the three open and resolved until they saw evidence. This note, written in September 2026, does not state that those dates were met: it states that the report published them and that the journalist should request the closeout letter.

How to cover OIG-25-39 without turning it into a police report. (1) Cite the PDF or the HTML record on oig.dhs.gov, not a clipped string. (2) Keep the tags: obligated, approved and obligated construction projects, available permanent work funding not obligated for construction. (3) Do not subtract $3.7 billion from $13 billion and title it "$3.7 billion missing": they are different metrics. (4) Cross PREPA/COR3 with rows from OpenFEMA PA (Funded Projects Details and Grant Award Activities) using applicantName and disasterNumber 4339, without inventing a total. (5) Remember that FEMA "concurred with all three" is not a confession of fraud; it is the standard administrative response when the component accepts the corrective action. The blackout on December 31, 2024, cited by the OIG, is an electrical service fact, not proof of embezzlement. Cousin: 755. Topic: politics. Primary source: OIG-25-39 on oig.dhs.gov (HTML record; PDF OIG-25-39-Sep25.pdf).