Electric Kool Aid Acid Guiso
A 100 megawatt GE LMS-100 gas turbine. Price: $36 million. Unless you're Bariven. Then it's $96 million.
You remember Chávez’s Electrical Emergency Decree, right? Signed during the blackout-prone days of early 2010, it allowed state agencies to circumvent normal public sector procurement processes to obtain new generating equipment. Ever wonder what happened with that?
Well, thanks to some enterprising reporting over at Ultimas Noticias, we’re starting to find out. For one thing, it seems that Bariven – PDVSA’s procurement subsidiary – offered $767 million for $400 million worth of gas turbines, but didn’t pay in full, so none of the turbines were ever actually delivered. Bello.
Say what you will about Eleazar Diaz Rangel, but UN actually has reporters out there running down stories like this. And that’s the only way we’ll get to hear about it, cuz for all the attention this story’s getting from Venezuela’s anti-corruption tsar the guy might as well have dropped dead.
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