Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board yesterday unexpectedly added the island’s towns and cities to its mandate, a move that it said was aimed at trying to help them avoid insolvency, Reuters reported. To date, the federally created board has only focused on the central government of the U.S. territory, which filed for bankruptcy in 2017 as it sought to restructure about $120 billion of debt and pension obligations. Board officials said that the move was not aimed at eliminating local governments or pushing them into bankruptcy. “This is absolutely not a takeover of anything,” José Carrión, the board’s chairman, told reporters, adding that the purpose was to help cities improve their finances and services. However, Christian Sobrino, Governor Ricardo Rosselló’s representative on the board, questioned if the board had the capacity to fully oversee municipal governments.
