PRESS RELEASE
DR. MARIO MARAZZI‐SANTIAGO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

March 28, 2018

AUTHORIZED STATEMENTS BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS ON STATEMENTS MADE BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE FINANCIAL ADVISORY AUTHORITY AND FISCAL AGENCY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF PUERTO RICO

Faced with the enormous fiscal and credibility challenges facing our Government, we renew our invitation to the Executive Director of AAFAF to demonstrate his real commitment to financial transparency, providing us with access to the “general ledger” of AAFAF and all the other subsidiaries it manages, so that we can incorporate them into the Puerto Rico Financial Transparency System, managed by the Institute: Financial Transparency. pr.

The “general ledger” is the accounting database that records every expense or revenue transaction of an organization. It contains information about who receives each payment, when they receive it, how much they received it and what they received it for.

Since 2016, the Institute has invited all public entities to join the System. So far, AAFAF has shown no interest in participating in the System, despite the fact that this server personally presented the System to AAFAF and invited not only AAFAF to join, but AAFAF to order the entire Government to join.

Globally, more and more countries, states and cities are using open data portals, such as the Financial Transparency System, to report to their citizens on how every penny of public funds is spent. In addition, as soon as the information is recorded in the System, great cost and efficiency are achieved in the management of public financial information.

All the information on the Institute's operating expenses is available there, in an open format that allows data to be downloaded, analyzed and visualized.

For example, one of the lines requested by AAFAF is the expenditure on the employer's contribution to the health insurance of the Institute's employees. If he spent about five minutes, the Director could see that the Institute has spent a large total of $41,844 on health insurance for its employees so far so far in fiscal year 2018:
Fiscal 2018: http://www.transparenciafinanciera.pr/

For more information on the Institute's finances, you can view all of the Institute's audited financial statements, together with the auditing reports that the Office of the Comptroller has carried out on the Institute's finances, at: Mission-and-Vision.

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

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Statistics Institute employees provide support in the 2017 Homeless Count

BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS ANNOUNCES THE ELECTION OF ARNALDO CRUZ, CO-FOUNDER OF ABRE PUERTO RICO, AS ITS NEW PRESIDENT

San Juan, PR, August 1, 2018 — The Board of Directors of the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) today announced the unanimous election of Arnaldo Cruz, co-founder of Abre Puerto Rico and director of Research and Analysis of Foundation for Puerto Rico, as the new president of the organization.

Cruz was elected at the first meeting of the Institute's Board of Directors held yesterday afternoon and in accordance with the provisions of Section VII of the Institute's Internal Regulations. It establishes that the members who will occupy seats on the Executive Committee, composed of the President, Vice President and Secretary of the Board, will be elected during the first meeting of the Board of Directors at the beginning of each fiscal year and by a majority vote of those present.

“I am grateful for the opportunity given to me to work with an excellent team such as the Institute of Statistics, under the executive direction of Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago,” said the new President of the Board of Directors of the Institute, who holds a master's degree in Public Policy from Harris School of Public Policy Studies, from the University of Chicago.

“I accept this great challenge, aware of the great need that our government has to improve the accessibility and quality of its statistics and the enormous fiscal challenges for these purposes. At the Institute of Statistics, we are available to support the Government of Puerto Rico and achieve important goals of common interest, such as the quality of public data and government transparency, in all aspects,” Cruz said.

On the other hand, the position of vice-president of the Board of Directors of the Institute will be occupied by the doctor in Economics, Antonio J. Fernós, who served as president for the past 2 years and the position of secretary by the Lcdo. Alex López, who is currently serving as an advisor to the Puerto Rico Senate.

Meanwhile, Ana L. Dávila, PhD in Demography and professor of the Demography Program at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Medical Sciences Campus, Ana L. Dávila and the PhDs in Statistics and professors from the Faculty of Business Administration of the UPR, Recinto de Río Piedras, Marta Álvarez and Sonia C. Balet, will continue as members of the Board of Directors.

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, about 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://www.indicadores.pr.

In addition, as the leading entity of the State Data Center (SDC) of Puerto Rico, the Institute 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 (Puerto Rico Community Survey) and official statistics on Puerto Rico's 10-year population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: https://censo.estadisticas.pr/.

For more information you can visit our website: https://estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook accounts (https://www.facebook.com/estadisticas.pr), Twitter (https://twitter.com/estadisticaspr) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/instituto-de-estadisticas-de-puerto-rico.

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

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