San Juan, (EFE) – 39% of the schools Public utilities in Puerto Rico that were closed five years ago have been awarded or granted for other uses, such as car washing, vandalism, and some still have electricity service.
This was revealed this Thursday by the Office of the Citizen’s Attorney, better known as the Ombudsman, after conducting an investigation and inspection in 2017 and 2018 of the closed schools.
For this investigation, the 18 investigators of the Citizen’s Attorney’s Office participated, who visited and inspected some 400 closed schools on the island, 94% of them, as reported in a statement.
The breakdown reveals that of 181 schools closed in 2017, 169 campuses or 93% were visited; and of 223 schools closed in 2018, 212 were visited for 95%.
Among the findings found by the researchers and issues that require the attention of government agencies, are that 30 unused schools continue to have water service and another 32 with electricity service.
Given this, it is investigated whether the Department of Education made the request to withdraw these services, as part of the protocols established for school closures, or whether the relevant agencies have not made such disconnections.
“Also, improper use has been identified in some of these schools, using basic services for car washing, bathing horses and illegal connections from the facilities,” Garcia said.
“These services that are still connected represent an impact of thousands of dollars for Puerto Rico in unaccounted-for water and electricity services,” said the Ombudsman.
More than 25 of these disused schools were identified and that prevent access because they are apparently controlled and occupied by people for criminal activities.
The classrooms, as well as school fields, are used for apparent criminal activity, storage of vehicles without license plates, and dismantling of vehicles.
Also, homeless people were found living in these schools, as well as individuals with apparent dependency on controlled substances who may require treatment assistance.
Investigators also found student files and cards, as well as employee punch cards, with addresses and identification numbers and even documents with social security numbers.
These documents were located without proper custody, storage or confiscation, as required by the Public Documents Law.
Desks, files, water fountains, doorbells, electronic equipment, computers, new books and usable and unusable school materials were also found.
In addition, the investigation ordered by the Ombudsman detected lack of maintenance in 105 of the inspected schools, which has caused vandalism, destruction and theft of fences, doors or windows.
