text: A rat infestation closed down a government office in Kissimmee that was storing donations destined for Puerto Rico, contaminating boxes of supplies that were never sent to the island. 
   
   The office of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration “does not have the budget to finance the shipping costs” of the supplies, according to PRFAA’s executive director Carlos Mercader. He added that previous efforts to send the boxes of water, food and other supplies through other organizations “have been unsuccessful.” 
   
   Mercader could not say how many boxes were on the property, but the island’s regional office had collected the items in Hurricane Maria’s aftermath, from local organizations and private individuals. 
   
   “Due to the many Puerto Rican families that have been displaced to Florida because of the hurricane, we have donated the meals to Puerto Rican families in need,” Mercader said Tuesday in a statement. “We will soon conduct an inventory of the donations to identify which ones are fit to be given out to Puerto Rican evacuees in Central Florida.” 
   
   The office was previously infested by rodents on August 10, about a month before the storm devastated the island. 
   
   “The building where the office is located is deteriorated, aside from being old, which is why PRFAA has decided to move the office to a more appropriate and dignified space to continue offering the services to the public,” Mercader said. 
   
   The agency, which represents Puerto Rico through its Central Florida and Washington D.C. offices, promotes public policy issues related to the island and was created to support Puerto Ricans moving to the region. The Kissimmee office is currently managed by Mercader since the most recent director, Frances Ortiz, resigned last month. 
   
   Thousands of Puerto Ricans have relocated to Florida after Hurricane Maria hit the island, many of whom are expected to stay in Central Florida. Last month, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló rallied members of the Puerto Rican community in the region and urged them use their political leverage against lawmakers who have voted against the island’s interests. 
   
   Juan Hernandez Mayoral, who directed the PRFAA office in Kissimmee from 2013 to 2017, said the news was “baffling.” 
   
   “Every day, those employees would go into that office and saw those boxes and they did nothing,” said Hernandez Mayoral, who is a former Puerto Rican senator and is affiliated with the island’s pro-commonwealth party. “As if there was no need on the island. This is government negligence.” 
   
   Jennifer Marcial Ocasio contributed to this report. 
   
   bpadro@orlandosentinel.com or 407-232-0202. Follow me on Twitter @BiancaJoanie ||||| A rat infestation in a government office in Florida contaminated supplies that could have been sent to Puerto Rico hurricane victims. 
   
   The water and food was moved into the premises despite officials knowing the office had been infested with rodents since August—a month before Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. 
   
   Related: Trump tells Puerto Rico "We love you" as FEMA cuts off food and water aid to island 
   
   According to the Orlando Sentinel, Puerto Rican authorities were unable to ship donated aid because of insufficient financing. 
   
   The Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration executive director Carlos Mercader explained past efforts to send the supplies through other organizations had ultimately proved unsuccessful. 
   
   Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images 
   
   Mercader added that the office in Kissimmee, Florida, had deteriorated to such an extent that his administration had decided to move to a new building. 
   
   “Every day, those employees would go into that office and saw those boxes and they did nothing,” Hernandez Mayoral, who ran the Kissimmee headquarters from 2013 to 2014, said. “As if there was no need on the island. This is government negligence." 
   
   The reports of the spoiled food come amid a litany of administrative failings with regard to aid sent to Puerto Rico. 
   
   U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings and Stacey Plaskett, the congressional delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands, have called for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be subpoenaed over its failure to provide tens of millions to Puerto Rico. 
   
   The federal agency awarded a $156 million contract to a small Atlanta-based company called Tribute Contracting LLC. It delivered only 50,000 of the 30 million meals promised, CNN reported. 
   
   "One of the primary reasons FEMA failed to deliver these meals is because it inexplicably awarded a contract worth approximately $156 million to deliver 30 million emergency meals to a tiny, one-person company with a history of struggling with much smaller contracts," Cummings and Plaskett said in the letter. 
   
   Contracting owner Tiffany Brown said Tuesday that she has been overwhelmed by the order and plans to sue the government for $70 million.
target: – Puerto Rico is still in great need of hurricane relief supplies, as San Juan's mayor noted last week, which makes recent news out of Florida frustrating. The Orlando Sentinel reports that boxes of donated supplies meant to be sent to the island after Hurricane Maria remained stuck instead in a Kissimmee government office, and that a recent rat infestation has now contaminated some of the food, water, and other supplies that were left languishing. The office of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, which its executive director says is situated in an "old" and "deteriorated" building, couldn't move the materials to their intended destination due to budgetary issues related to shipping. Carlos Mercader says attempts to recruit other groups to help them send the supplies were "unsuccessful." A previous chief of the PRFFA is outraged by the wasted donations. "Every day, those employees would go into that office and saw those boxes and they did nothing," says Juan Hernandez Mayoral, who is also a former Puerto Rican senator. "This is government negligence." Newsweek notes this news comes on the heels of a contract canceled by FEMA after a one-woman company failed to deliver millions of meals to Puerto Rico as promised; Democratic lawmakers now want the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to subpoena FEMA to find out how that small company got the $156 million contract to perform that service. Meanwhile, Mercader says his team is trying to assess which supplies are still good and will then get them out to Puerto Rican evacuees living in central Florida.