Puerto Rico Scandals Lead to Firings

Pallets of food, medical supplies and bedding, were discovered to have been sitting untouched for more than two years in a warehouse while Puerto Ricans had to deal with the aftermaths of a hurricane and recent earthquakes.

Three Fired for Mishandling

Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez fired two more officials after the initial dismissal of Puerto Rico’s Office of Emergency Management director Carlos Acevedo on Saturday.

The firings took place after a video surfaced and blew up the web, showing allegedly left-over aid from Hurricane Maria that had sat untouched for over two years in a warehouse in the southern city of Ponce.

“There are thousands of people who made sacrifices to bring aid to the south and it’s unforgivable that resources have been kept in a warehouse,” the governor’s initial statement said.

The two officials subsequently terminated from their posts were Housing Secretary Fernando Gil and Department of Family Secretary Glorimar Andújar.

When the warehouse was discovered, people immediately stormed it to distribute supplies for those suffering from the aftereffects of the recent earthquakes in Puerto Rico. Governor Vázquez said that none of the citizens who broke in will be prosecuted and has ordered an investigation into the discovery of the supplies.

Acevedo has denied mishandling the supplies, saying that they were expired and there were no orders to remove them or destroy them. Gil and Andújar were terminated for being unable to provide any information regarding other collection and distribution centers to the administration.

Good news also arrived in Puerto Rico, however, as the US lifts a month-long hold on $8.2 billion in disaster aid funding to help Puerto Rico get the through recent earthquake crisis it experienced. The funds were previously withheld over concerns of corruption and mismanagement.