PRESS RELEASE
DR. MARIO MARAZZI‐SANTIAGO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

March 17, 2018

AUTHORIZED STATEMENTS BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS ON THE DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF PUERTO RICO

Yesterday, the Supreme Court denied a motion calling for the resumption of the work of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico. The decision of the Supreme Court confirms that the Institute can continue to carry out its work and functions, while the Court of Appeals hears the matter. It seems to us that this is a prudent decision in the face of the enormous fiscal and credibility challenges that Puerto Rico is facing.

The Institute's Board of Directors had been unable to meet for 7 months. It was able to meet this week after the judgment handed down by the Court of First Instance, in favor of the lawsuit filed by the Institute.

The restart of the work of the Institute's Board of Directors allows us to resume our quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions to guide a public policy of transparency and high-quality statistical processes.

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes (787) 688-0401

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The Importance of Programming in Statistics, Promoting Greater Participation of Women

The main objective of this conference was to highlight the importance of programming or coding in statistical processes. In the same way, greater participation of women in the programming area, the use of free platforms for statistical analysis, women in science and technology and the importance of a data scientist or “Data Analyst” were promoted.

Presentations

• Skills and competencies of the 2020 graduate

• • Dr. Orville M. Disdier, Conference Director
• The importance of STEM and computer science in Puerto Rico
  • Lucy Crespo, CEO of the Puerto Rico Trust for Science, Technology and Research
  • Ana H. Quintero, Department of Mathematics, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
• Coding in statistical processes in Puerto Rico
  • Pedro A. Torres, Professor of Statistics, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez
  • María Egleé Pérez, Department of Mathematics, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
• Gender Equity in Science and Mathematics
  • Sonia Bartolomei, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez
• The inclusion of women in coding and statistics
  • Patricia Ordoñez, Department of Computer Science, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
  • Sofía Stolberg, CEO of Pilot 151 and Codetrotters, supporter of the local tech ecosystem

Materials

Prog

‍Videos

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PRESS RELEASE
DR. MARIO MARAZZI‐SANTIAGO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS MEETS AND RESUMES PENDING WORK

The meeting took place after the San Juan Court of First Instance issued a dismissal
and desist from the Governor to stop political intervention in it

San Juan, PR, March 13, 2018 — The Board of Directors of the Institute of Statistics met today and resumed its pending work, after 7 months without being able to convene as a result of the
controversy arose as to its composition, after a series of dismissals and appointments made last July, which were declared null and void by the San Juan Court of First Instance last week.

The following issues were addressed during the meeting:

1. A series of minutes from past meetings that were pending were approved.
2. It was approved to hold an extraordinary meeting to address technical issues related to the statistics of deaths due to hurricanes Irma and María
3. Resolution No. 2018-01 was approved to interpret the scope of administrative and fiscal autonomy granted to the Institute of Statistics by its Organic Law, in the light of Law No. 8-2017, also known as the Single Employer Act.
4. Resolution No. 2018-02 was approved to interpret the scope of administrative and fiscal autonomy granted to the Institute of Statistics by its Organic Law, in the light of Law No. 2-2017, also known as the Financial Advisory Authority and Tax Agency Act.
5. It was approved as an institutional position to favor the approval of P. de la C. 1476, who proposes to amend the Statistics Institute Act to provide that no public official can be part of the Board, and to establish restrictions applicable to former officials who wish to be members of the Board. In addition, some additional technical recommendations to the project were approved.
6. Several extensions were approved that the agencies had requested for violating the Institute's Information Request Orders related to the Interagency Validation Portal Act for the Granting of Incentives for Economic Development.
7. The Institute's Implementation Plan and Operational Budget for fiscal year 2017-18 were approved.
8. It was agreed to request a meeting with the Governor of Puerto Rico in order to be able to discuss pending issues related to the future of the Institute and the best ways in which the Institute can collaborate with the management of the Government for the benefit of the public interest.

“We have been able to restart the quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions exercised by this Board of Directors in search of promoting changes to the Government's data collection and statistics systems so that they are complete, reliable and quickly and universally accessible. For example, we were able to close a complaint from last year that helped the Graduate School of Planning of the University of Puerto Rico to maintain its accreditation with the American Planning Association for non-compliance with an information request order from the Institute for Statistics of the Examination Board of Professional Planners,” said Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, executive director of the Institute.

For his part, Dr. Antonio J. Fernós Sagebién, president of the Institute's Board of Directors, said: “We have major initiatives that are essential for Puerto Rico to recover and to have reliable and accessible statistics. To lift Puerto Rico up, we need to join forces; it can't be done any other way. Therefore, we have requested a meeting with the Governor to align our work agendas, putting the benefit of the public interest first.”

The meeting was attended by Dr. Antonio J. Fernós Sagebién, Dr. Ana L. Dávila, Dr. Sonia Balet, Dr. Marta Alvarez, Lcdo. Alex López Echegaray and Mr. Arnaldo Cruz.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access. The Institute has in its inventory, accessible through https://estadisticas.pr.gov, over 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a custodian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through https://data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: https://indicadores.pr.

For more information you can visit our website: https://estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook (estadisticas.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

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AUTHORIZED STATEMENTS BY DR. MARIO MARAZZI-SANTIAGO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS OF PUERTO RICO, ON THE JUDGMENT ISSUED YESTERDAY BY THE TRIAL COURT, SUPERIOR CHAMBER OF SAN JUAN, IN RELATION TO A LAWSUIT FILED BY THE INSTITUTE

Yesterday afternoon, the Court of First Instance, Superior Chamber of San Juan, issued its judgment and declared in effect the lawsuit filed by the Institute of Statistics. This opinion is another endorsement of the independence of the Institute of Statistics, which is so essential to its operation and its reason for being. After the strong statements of the Court and the President of the New York Federal Reserve this week, we hope to be able to close this chapter, so that at the Institute we can concentrate all our efforts and resources on fully complying with our duties and responsibilities. We reiterate our interest and willingness to meet with the Governor and make the Institute's services and resources available to him.

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes (787) 688-0401

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PRESS RELEASE
DR. MARIO MARAZZI‐SANTIAGO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

February 22, 2018

AUTHORIZED STATEMENTS BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS REGARDING THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO AND GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY REGARDING THE STATISTICS OF DEATHS RELATED TO HURRICANES IRMA AND MARIA

Today, we welcomed with great joy the formalization of an agreement between the University of Puerto Rico and George Washington University for the purpose of studying the deaths associated with hurricanes Irma and María.

We have learned that a group of researchers from George Washington University will collaborate in this project, and a group of researchers from the University of Puerto Rico, a public entity that is part of and belongs to the Government of Puerto Rico. We think it's excellent that the research team includes not only experts from outside Puerto Rico, but also people with local knowledge and expertise.

On behalf of the Institute of Statistics, we take this opportunity to make available to researchers from both educational entities our expertise and experience with the Death Registration System of the Government of Puerto Rico. As is public knowledge, the Institute of Statistics has worked with the System in the past and, thanks to our intervention, problems were identified and corrected by the Demographic Registry in accounting for deaths and classification of related causes. Our findings resulted in improvements in the quality of these statistics that have been recognized by the American Statistical Association.

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes (787) 688-0401

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The Institute asks the Court to resolve the legal dispute related to the composition of its Board of Directors, assuring that there is “real and serious harm” caused to its supervisory functions

San Juan, PR, February 21, 2018 — The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) filed a motion before the San Juan Court of First Instance reiterating its request for a Declaratory Judgment and Injuction requested following the legal controversy that arose last summer and which has not yet been resolved.

The request was submitted yesterday, February 20, 2018 and as a prelude to an argumentative hearing that has been scheduled for next Tuesday, February 27, with the objective of the parties' lawyers arguing their respective submitted motions and evaluating the possibility of resolving the case with the written documents already submitted.

Through the legal remedy presented, it is explained how the situation represents “real and serious harm” to the implementation of the Institute's Organic Law (Law 209-2003), in particular, the oversight of statistical functions and products as well as the award of disputes over those who have not complied with information requests issued by the Executive Director.

“Six months have passed since this lawsuit began, and at the Institute, as well as in some cases among the general public in Puerto Rico, in the United States and in the world, the effects have begun to be seen,” the Institute states in the appeal filed and then enumerated the damages suffered due to the lack of an operating Board of Directors.

Below, we highlight some of the damages outlined in the filed motion:

1. Without the Board of Directors, the Institute has not been able to establish the standards, nomenclatures and classification of methods that the Government must follow to estimate the number of deaths caused by hurricanes Irma and María, and to then be able to monitor the quality and reliability of the statistical products generated by the Government on these deaths. In fact, the President of the American Statistical Association, the largest professional association of statisticians in the world, wrote a letter last month to the Governor to express her disappointment at the exclusion of expert experts from the Institute of Statistics in the accounting of deaths from hurricanes, in Executive Order 2018-01.
2. Without the Board of Directors, the Institute has been unable to approve the hiring of an engineering expert to provide technical assistance to the Electric Power Authority so that it can for the first time provide the federal Government with statistics for each generation plant, as required by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, for every electric power supplier in the United States. Worse yet, without these statistics, it has not been possible to design an adequate plan for the recovery of the electrical system, after hurricanes Irma and María destroyed it.
3. Without the Board of Directors, the Institute has been unable to respond to numerous requests related to information requests, which has virtually stopped the implementation of Law 187-2015, also known as the Law on the Interagency Validation Portal for the Granting of Incentives for Economic Development, an important anti-corruption and transparency tool, which facilitates the interagency oversight of tax incentives granted by public government agencies to private entities.
4. Without the Board of Directors, the Institute has been unable to recruit the resources to carry out the Consumer Expenditure Survey, which we were about to begin this year, after it had not been conducted in almost 2 decades.

“The damage caused to Puerto Rico is real. In the absence of a Board of Directors, the Institute has been unable to take action to ensure that statistics on the impact of hurricanes are reliable and meet quality methodologies and criteria, at a time when the entire world has questioned these statistics from the Government of Puerto Rico,” the Institute points out in the legal resource. In addition, it requests the Court to issue the requested Declaratory Judgment and Injunction so that the Institute can be certain about who makes up, in law, its Board of Directors and can deal with pending and future matters as required by Law 209-2003.

On the other hand, the motion presented by the Institute states that the recent letter from the Fiscal Oversight Board about the Institute dismisses from its face the “removals” of the Institute's Board members under Act 3. He assures that, beyond the constitutional questions about the way in which the Governor has sought to remove 4 of the members of the Board of Directors, the only thing Law 3 could apply to Institute officials is if they represent a problem or a potential problem for the Governor of Puerto Rico to formulate and implement the fiscal plan required by PROMESA. “All the components created under the federal PROMESA law have highlighted the importance of keeping the Institute free from political intervention,” the Institute maintains in its motion, so there is no way to use the federal PROMESA Act to justify the removal of members of the Institute's Board of Directors.

On the other hand, if the Governor understood that some members of the Institute's Board of Directors were threatening the Government's compliance with the fiscal plan or with the provisions of PROMESA, he must formulate whatever charges he saw fit the members thus charged and carry out due process for their removal. However, to date, no charge has been made to charge members of the Institute's Board of Directors with actions that constitute just cause for their removal.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access. The IEPR has nearly 300 statistical products in its inventory, accessible through www.estadisticas.pr. In addition, it is a guardian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through www.data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: www.indicadores.pr.

In addition, as the leading entity of Puerto Rico's SDC, the IEPR manages the SDC portal, which contains the main statistical reports and publications of the U.S. Census Bureau on Puerto Rico, specifically those that are most in demand, such as annual population estimates; the Puerto Rico Community Survey and official statistics on Puerto Rico's decennial population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed at: https://censo.estadisticas.pr/.

For more information you can visit our website: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook (estadisticas.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes/787-688-0401

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