In an effort to purge ineffective or otherwise problematic officials from key posts, President Donald Trump has had no qualms about cleaning house, personnel-wise, since taking office for a second term.

Now, as Breitbart reports, Trump has turned his attention to the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (FOMBPR), firing five of its members just last week.

Board shakeup initiated

According to an administration official who spoke to Breitbart, those relieved of their duties on Friday were board chair Arthur Gonzalez, Cameron McKenzie, Juan Sabater, Betty Rosa, and Luis Ubinas.

Andrew Biggs and John Nixon, the other two members of the board, are poised to remain in their positions.

Explaining the decision, the White House official declared, “The Financial Oversight and Management Board of Puerto Rico has been run inefficiently and ineffectively by its government members for far too long, and it’s time to restore common sense leadership.”

According to the Oversight Board’s own website, the entity is an outgrowth of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), signed into law during the administration of then-President Barack Obama in order to help restructure debt and achieve fiscal responsibility.

The board itself is designated as an entity within the Puerto Rico Government and is comprised of seven members, all appointed by the president of the United States to serve three-year terms and thereafter until replaced.

Operations under scrutiny

In the past, the Daily Caller reported on what appeared to be highly questionable financial practices related to the board’s operations, including the payment of staff salaries over 1000% higher than the median household income in the entire territory.

Numbers from December 2017 revealed a salary budget of $3 million annually, covering a total of 14 employees.

Adding to the eyebrow-raising conduct of the board was its 2017 expenditure of millions of dollars for high-priced consulting services.

An exposé in the New Yorker revealed that for much of 2017, “more than a million dollars a month went to McKinsey for ‘strategic consulting.’”

The piece added, “Millions more have gone to other firms -- many of which have political connections -- to cover costs that include catering and inflated photocopying charges,” precisely the sort of waste and fraud the current Trump administration has targeted from the start.

Profiting from pain

Given Puerto Rico’s tragic recent history of natural disasters, infrastructure decay, and financial mismanagement, Trump clearly believes that change -- at least when it comes to the Oversight Board -- is long overdue.

As the author of the aforementioned New Yorker piece wrote at the time, “The vultures profiting from Puerto Rico’s misery are unlikely to go hungry; the same can’t be said for the people who live on the island,” and the Trump administration is taking important steps to address that pattern of naked opportunism once and for all.