Education favoring NPP contractors, union says - Puerto Rico Daily Sun - 19/11/09

By Xavira Neggers: The Education Department is contracting private cleaning companies owned by people with close ties to the New Progressive Party, among other alleged irregularities involving the pending layoff of 3,660 public school janitors in January, the Puerto Rican Workers Syndicate denounced, claims to which the agency did not respond Wednesday. The supposed irregularities are causing problems with public school maintenance that is needed to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus among local public school students, the union said. As of Wednesday, 43 people have died in Puerto Rico from the new influenza strain circling the globe, the Health Department reported. “This signifies the return of political favoritism when the party committees of the political party in power would dole out public jobs to its followers and it is a foretaste of what is awaiting us when the janitors are laid off,” said Israel Morales, vice president of the Puerto Rican Workers Syndicate, or SPT by its Spanish initials. The SPT has identified at least five companies that are either owned by NPP leaders or already have contracts with NPP municipalities, Morales said. Among the companies with close NPP ties is National Building Maintenance, owned by former NPP candidate to the mayoralty of Ponce Hercios Bermúdez, Morales said. [Continued in Extended Entry section.]