During a congressional hearing on Thursday with a House Appropriations subcommittee, Irv Dennis and David Woll, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's CFO and principal deputy assistant secretary for community planning and development had disclosed that the department had knowledgeably skipped the legal deadline for the Puerto Rico hurricane relief funding.

The two high-position holders of the department had admitted to a delay of the release of notice that would have started the tedious procedures in financially assisting Puerto Rico through the funds set aside by Congress after the hurricane Maria had hit Puerto Rico in 2017.

House Representative David Price had agreed that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had failed to observe the lawful deadline for the issuance of funding notice to Puerto Rico.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development had issued funding notices to eighteen states that were devastated by natural calamities on September 4. The notices that were issued by HUD did not include Puerto Rico. If the notices included Puerto Rico's hurricane relief funding, it would have been a go-signal to start planning for the building of the much-awaited rehabilitation of the Island.

After Maria's wrath was felt in Puerto Rico, the island had only been provided with a third of the approximately $43 billion budget set aside by Congress. It is primarily designated as the fund for rehabilitating the residential areas in Puerto Rico. 

The hurricane Maria had hit Puerto Rico roughly 2 years ago leaving many houses without any roofs. In the present, some of the houses on the island are still roofless and some are using blue tarpaulins as substitute roofs.

According to a House Representative Nita Lowey, the delay of the Puerto Rico hurricane relief funding is illicit. She also added in her statement that some Americans in Puerto Rico have been waiting for a long time for the arrival or announcement of the funding.

Puerto Rico hurricane relief funding
(Photo : reuters)

David Woll and Irv Dennis are pointing fingers to suspected corruption, fiscal irregularities, and Puerto Rico's abilities to handle the hurricane relief funding for the delay of the release of funding notice to the island.

Based on Wolls' statement, the HUD had skipped the deadline for the release of the notice for the Puerto Rico hurricane relief funding because of a delay of the audit from the HUD's Office of Inspector General and the employment of a financial monitor to supervise the movement of the funds.

The audit will focus on determining the ability of Puerto Rico to handle funds worth billions for housing and disaster rehabilitation efforts. 

According to HUD's Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis, he expects to find insignificant findings on the audit and that he also suggests that the funding for the Puerto Rico hurricane relief should not be withheld. 

A counsel of Ray Oliver Davis had also expressed his strong belief in the claim of HUD's Inspector General. He claims that the Office of Inspector General did not say to HUD that Puerto Rico audit findings will disclose serious and relevant findings that will gravely affect the release of Puerto Rico hurricane relief funding.