TVA sometimes fast on trigger
October 16, 2009
Admittedly, TVA is a big outfit that annually doles out $10 billion (less lately) that filters through federal hands. When that money is spent, they are federal dollars, not TVA dollars, not “The Valley’s” dollars, and certainly not the ownership of any federal TVA employee.
TVA management has a hard time understanding just how “federal” TVA is – it’s all federal, period. And that takes it completely out of the realm of an investor-owned electric utility where the rules are very different. They pay taxes for one and have none of the other exemptions afforded TVA.
The answer to my inquiry was terse; I wanted information about TVA’s vendor/supplier systems and how they work. My first reply from TVA made a statement that while I probably would not be eligible to enter their “supplier portal” with “numbers and active contract(s)” there still might be a chance to enter if I were “seeking to do business with TVA as a new supplier.” The subject of the e-mail: “REQUEST FOR MORE INFORMATION”.
I was preparing my reply to the above request as follows:
“Supplier Connections;
October 15, 2009
“Thanks for your reply. My request is to be able to better understand TVA, its management and operations. I write frequently about the TVA and knowing how the vendor/supplier systems work will enable me to work directly from information you supply and not from speculation or just hearing from TVA suppliers second hand. I understand that one of your objectives is for the TVA to be more transparent. This will help.”
“Thanks for your cooperation.
Ernest Norsworthy”
I received another e-mail from TVA 24 minutes later which indicates the speed that behemoth of an organization can move if they want to. And here, in part, is that reply from TVA:
“After careful consideration (24 minutes), your registration for the TVA Online Connection has been declined.”
Well, first, I just wanted access to the vendor/supplier system for the reasons I stated above to better understand what is going on in a large part of TVA expenditures. Hundreds if not thousands of “outside” people apparently can have that access with ease.
And secondly, I did not even get a chance to make a case for being a supplier to TVA, not that I would, but that option was removed in a mere 24 minutes.
I asked for a clarification of the discrepancies between the two e-mails and, wouldn’t you know it, it seems that it was my fault. The Site Administrator wrote, “I sent that email (the first one) to you to perhaps to get some more insight as to why you were requesting access. Unfortunately they were faster than your response back to me. (Ital. supplied)”
I thought 24 minutes to get back was pretty fast but apparently not fast enough. But even that misses the point; they obviously already had decided against my getting access even before the first e-mail to me.
I still believe it is appropriate for those like me who writes extensively about the TVA (or for any other interested citizen) to have as much access to TVA’s procedures and methods as is feasible without impinging on national security matters.
Maybe someday, when it all will be transparent…
Ernest Norsworthy
emnorsworthy@earthlink.net
http://norsworthyopinion.com