Walter Higgins has resigned as chief executive officer of Puerto Rico’s bankrupt power company after four months in the role.

The former CEO of Ascendant, parent company of Belco, was chosen to lead the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority into privatisation.

Ricardo Rossello, Puerto Rico’s governor, said in a statement that Mr Higgins had resigned for personal reasons.

The Associated Press reported that Puerto Ricans had grumbled about Mr Higgins’s $450,000 annual salary as the island struggled to emerge from an 11-year recession.

Bloomberg reported that Mr Higgins quit after the legislature had sought to prevent him from receiving a bonus.

Prepa then named Rafael Diaz-Granados as Mr Higgins’s successor, but he has since pulled out of the job after public outrage over his proposed $750,000 salary, which the utility said was in line with industry standards, and which appeared to be an attempt to circumvent the legislature’s anti-bonus measure.

In March, Mr Higgins took on the challenge of managing the utility, complete with its $9 billion debt burden and the task of restoring power to customers still in the dark from the damage caused by Category 4 hurricane Irma last September.

According to the Associated Press, government officials last month questioned why Mr Higgins awarded a $315,000 contract to a consultant without authorisation from certain government agencies.

The officials later said they were satisfied with the explanation from the power company’s board of directors, which noted it had hired the consultant instead of filling the position for an executive sub-director of administration and finance.

Mr Higgins, 72, served as CEO of Ascendant from 2012 to 2016 and has had more than 40 years’ experience in energy industry management roles.

Juan Rosario, former consumer representative on the power company’s board, said he was not surprised about Mr Higgins’s resignation.

“The power company changes its director like people change their underwear,” he said. “That contributes to this image of instability.”