Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosello moved Sunday to cancel the $300​ million Whitefish Energy hurricane recovery contract amid scrutiny of the ​fledgling ​Montana company.

He said his government has the right to cancel the project through an escape clause in the contract.

“We’re invoking that cancellation clause… There’s some work that needs to be finished, but I am invoking that cancellation clause,” he said at a press conference.

“There cannot be any kind of distraction that alters the commitment to restore electrical power as soon as possible in Puerto Rico,” Rossello said, adding that at least $8 million has been paid to Whitefish so far.

​The announcement by Rossello comes as federal legislators seek to investigate the contract awarded to the small company from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s hometown.

Whitefish was awarded a $300 million contract to help rebuild power lines in Puerto Rico following the damage wrought by Hurricane Maria. But critics questioned the firm’s ability to do the work.

The two-year-old company had just two full-time employees when the storm hit, but it has since hired more than 300 workers.

Rosello last week ordered an inspector general investigation into the contracting process.​

For his part, Zinke insisted his relationship with Whitefish’s CEO did not influence the decision to award the company the massive contract.

Rossellos’s announcement comes as federal legislators seek to investigate why the contract was awarded to the small company from Zinke’s hometown.​ The Federal Emergency Management Agency ​also ​raised concerns about how Whitefish got the deal and whether the prices were reasonable.​​

Rossello requested that power crews from New York and Florida come to help restore power in Puerto Rico. Gov. Cuomo has dispatched New York State emergency workers to aid the island the past few weeks and has personally visited to survey the damage.

Meanwhile Rossello also slammed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for not meeting its goals. The agency could not be immediately reached for comment.

Roughly 70 percent of the island remains without power more than a month after Hurricane Maria struck the U.S. territory on Sept. 20.

Power company Director Ricardo Ramos has said that Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority reached a deal with Whitefish just days before the hurricane struck. He also said that FEMA had approved of the deal, something the agency has denied.

FEMA said last week that it has not approved any reimbursement requests from the power company for money to cover repairs to the island’s electrical system. The contract said the utility would not pay costs unallowable under FEMA grants, but it also said, “The federal government is not a party to this contract.”

The move by Rossello comes days after Whitefish got into a public spat on Twitter with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz after she slammed the “alarming” nature of the contract. Whitefish Energy subsequently apologized.​

Unlike other Puerto Rican politicians who have lambasted the Trump Administration’s handling of recovery efforts, Rossello has been more measured in his criticism and has sought to maintain cordial ties to the president to bolster recovery efforts.

Post Wire Services