The company hired to repair Puerto Rico’s electrical grid stopped working Monday over $83 million in unpaid bills while some utility crews from the mainland U.S. quit the half-finished reconstruction job altogether, the Wall Street Journal reported today.
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The chief executive of Puerto Rico’s troubled public electric company stepped down on Friday amid a two-month island-wide blackout and weeks of bruising public outcry over a costly contract to restore service, the New York Times reported. The resignation of Ricardo L. Ramos, the chief executive of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, known as PREPA, was effective immediately.
As Puerto Rico faced a fiscal crisis last year after racking up $123 billion in debt and pension liabilities, Congress passed special legislation to give it relief from creditors and time to find its financial footing.
Puerto Rico is considering suspending debt-service payments for five years, a lead lawyer for the territory’s federal oversight board said, in the first indication of how the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria will affect the restructuring of the island’s debt, Bloomberg News reported.
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The Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico was created under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act of 2016. The Board consists of seven members appointed by the President of the United States and one ex officio member designated by the Governor of Puerto Rico. Access information on the Board, documents, videos of meetings, calendar of events and live webcasts by clicking here.