The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday it would further restrict Puerto Rico’s access to federal dollars for repairing hurricane damage, citing continued instability in the U.S. territory amid leadership change.
The announcement comes even as Governor Ricardo Rosselló announced his resignation on Wednesday, which takes effect 5:00 p.m. August 2.
FEMA said Puerto Rico must first receive its approval before getting access to draw down all funds related to 2017 Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
The manifold problems facing the island commonwealth appears to be ceaseless as incoming governor, Secretary of Justice Wanda Vázquez, is facing allegations she was aware of and failed to investigate irregularities in the distribution of resources following Hurricane Maria. According to the Wall Street Journal, Puerto Rico’s Office of Government Ethics said it has asked its attorneys to determine whether Ms. Vázquez committed ethical violations related to Hurricane Maria relief efforts.
A problem for PR could be a Problem for the VI
FEMA’s latest action to safeguard federal disaster dollars from possible corruption should serve as a caution to the U.S. Virgin Islands, which only sits 20 minutes away from Puerto Rico and is oftentimes lumped with the island of over 3 million relative to the release of federal disaster dollars.
U.S. Virgin Islands leaders have also complained that FEMA has been dragging its feet in releasing relief funding for disaster recovery. Senator Janelle Sarauw recently suggested that the federal agency was using the territory as a test case to improve is disaster response.
“There is a bigger issue now and that’s FEMA and how they’re handling reimbursements and the recovery. FEMA is shady! However, the initial response on securing funds, MAP and other things were commendable. They’re using us as best practices,” Ms. Sarauw said.
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