President of the Association of Mayors of Puerto Rico, Luis Javier Hernández, responded to President Joe Biden’s government announcement regarding the approval of $ 6.2 billion for mitigation projects from the Community Development Program to Address Disasters (CDBG- DR), as part of the effort to accelerate the delivery of reconstruction funds to Puerto Rico.
“We thank President Biden for fulfilling his commitment to release these funds. In the past, the combination of local-level corruption, such as Whitefish, and Donald Trump in the United States has been deadly to the recovery of our people ”.
Hernández pointed out that since Hurricanes Irma and María, the municipalities have fought a clear and consistent struggle for the rapid allocation of federal funds.
“Excessive bureaucracy slows down, limits and blocks community reconstruction. Now, as a country, we must restore citizens’ confidence in public service. This is achieved by generating the guarantees so that these funds get where they need to go: to the people ”.
Hernández argued that “municipal work teams have experience managing CDBG funds because they know the specific needs of the communities and have especially pushed for the elimination of excessive bureaucracy. What comes next is that the approval of projects and the disbursement of funds is fair and equitable and the country offers a guarantee of confidence.
The Chairman of the Associated Mayors made several recommendations to the government of Pedro Pierluisi, the Minister of Housing and the COR3 team. “If we want this to be the four-year period of reconstruction, we must count on mayors, we must streamline projects, make agreements between authorities and municipalities more flexible and free up money so that the work can be done.”
Regarding the experience in Villalba and other municipalities, Hernández pointed out that parameters are set with the Treasury so that disbursements to construction companies are more flexible. “We now have a great opportunity to gain the momentum generated by President Biden’s announcement. Now we need the central government to do its job quickly. As always, the mayors are on hand to work together, and of course supervise when needed, for the good of our communities, ”he concludes.
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