During executive session of the Oct. 10 meeting of the Brownsville Public Utilities Board, an 11-month forensic analysis of the failed Tenaska Brownsville Generation Station project, which concluded that BPUB management for years intentionally misrepresented the project’s viability partly in order to maintain related rate hikes, was a topic of discussion.
Following the discussion and the return to open session, the board released the following statement regarding any action the board may take in response to the audit report, released on Oct. 5.
“It is clearly important that we respond to the audit in a measured, factual and deliberate manner that takes into account what is best for the community, the city and (BPUB). We must do this quickly and in such a way that we capture the narrative of the audit with our collective objectives in mind with the aim of minimizing negative external impacts to our ability to function effectively in the future.
“We do caution that even after the brief time we were given to read and digest this extensive report, there are some potential factual issues. This is important, because in order to determine how to proceed with what’s best for our community we need a common base of agreed facts.
“We feel it prudent to allow those listed in the report a specified period of time to respond to the opinions and allegations specified in the audit. We will conduct an expedited review of the audit, either internally or with the possible outside help of outside professionals to help us sort through the facts and present an accurate foundation for moving forward.
“We understand and we feel the tremendous concern conveyed to (BPUB) by the public. So once we have taken the above steps we aim to engage with the city to address in an expedited fashion the mistakes that were made, the root causes and make whatever structural and/or personnel are changes are needed to ensure the (BPUB) ship returns quickly without delay to its core mission and the major challenges we and the entire utility industry are facing.”
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Tenaska audit concludes BPUB misled: Forensic investigation results released
