The former governor of Puerto Rico stood in front us, extended disaster response staff, making a joke out of “politics being the national sport of Puerto Rico”. Little did I know. Eighteen months later, our contract ended, and a Canadian-multinational firm was given an award that was 27 times the cost or value of our contract – for the same work. Government officials, with whom we worked daily, challenged use during the bidding process. How can you do this work for so little? (We were charging a lot, by the way). My answer was: “I have a year’s worth of data, I know what it costs. We’ve been managing FEMA disaster moneys for years. We know the basic parameters for what they will accept.”