A federal control board that supervises Puerto Rico’s finances announced a new executive director on Thursday after its last one stepped down in April following a historic debt restructuring for the U.S. territory, the Associated Press reported. Robert Mujica, budget director for New York state, is expected to assume his new role in January. He previously served as chief of staff to the New York state Senate majority leader and was secretary to the state’s Senate finance committee. The U.S. Congress created the board in 2016, a year after Puerto Rico announced that it was unable to pay more than $70 billion of public debt accumulated through decades of mismanagement, corruption and excessive borrowing. In 2017, Puerto Rico filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Nearly five years later, a federal judge in January approved a plan to slash the territory’s debt and allow the government to start repaying creditors. Much of the debt has been restructured, but the $9 billion held by Puerto Rico’s power company — the largest debt of any government agency — has yet to be resolved after mediation talks failed. Litigation has since resumed. Mujica, who replaces Natalie Jaresko, will be in charge of a board that is overseeing the bankruptcy-like process and will remain in place until Puerto Rico’s government approves four consecutive balanced budgets.
