The federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances sued the U.S. territorial government on Monday, asking courts to order it to provide documents related to a failed multimillion-dollar purchase of Covid-19 testing kits and other medical supplies, the Associated Press reported. The board said that it requested the documents two months ago and said that while the government has released some information, it has “completely ignored” repeated calls to turn over all documents. “The rules for how the government spends money must be clear and transparent at all times, including under the immense pressure of emergencies,” Natalie Jaresko, the board’s executive director, said in a statement. The government has already turned over more than 1,000 documents, and the island‘s Health Department has requested more time to confirm the existence of the documents sought by the board, said Omar Marrero, executive director of Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority. The lawsuit was filed nearly two months after Gov. Wanda Vázquez announced she was canceling all contracts awarded to people and companies whose names have been publicized as part of a local and federal investigation into an attempted purchase of $38 million worth of Covid-19 testing kits. Vázquez had initially defended the purchase order that was eventually canceled, resulting in the government recovering its $19 million deposit.
