Demographic Registry complies with the order of publishing mortality data

The action paves the way for greater transparency than

It saves lives after future hurricanes in Puerto Rico

San Juan, PR, August 30, 2018 — The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) announced today that the Demographic Registry has begun to comply with the Resolution No. 2018-03 of the Board of Directors of the Institute for the purpose of disseminating a set of data (Dataset) which contains preliminary information on deaths, which will be updated weekly on the open data platform managed by the Institute.

The Institute's Board of Directors had ordered this disclosure as a “measure of transparency” in the face of concerns raised last year regarding deaths that occurred after the passage of hurricanes Irma and María.

The released dataset contains information for each recorded death, which occurred from January 1, 2017 to the most recent week. It includes information on causes of death, month of death, place of residence, place of birth, type of death, sex, marital status, age, education level, occupation, industry, veteran status, and more.

This can be downloaded from the Institute's new open data platform, available here: https://datos.estadisticas.pr/dataset/defunciones-registradas-hasta-la-semana-pasada. The platform also allows you to preview the data and also allows you to develop applications that connect to the data set automatically through the use of Application Programming Interface (API).

Although the Resolution of the Board of Directors mandates that this data set be updated daily, the Department of Health and the Institute of Statistics agreed to update it weekly, as long as there is no emergency declaration. If an emergency is declared in the future, the Demographic Registry will be updating the data daily, to facilitate the analysis of these data that can save lives. In fact, this protocol should be included in the Department of Health's next Emergency Plan.

“Right now, more than ever, it has become evident the importance of the accessibility of statistical data to determine trends during specific times or phenomena, resulting in more assertive responses to an emergency. The certainty and transparency of this type of information could make the difference between life and death. Both the Department of Health and Governor Ricardo Rosselló's administration have always promoted free access to information, especially at a time when we seek to perfect every aspect of our contingency plans for times of emergency. This initiative, which unites the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics and the Demographic Registry, points in that direction. We are pleased that it is materializing and that steps are being taken in the data collection process, for the benefit of Puerto Rican citizens,” said the Secretary of Health, Dr. Rafael Rodríguez Mercado.

For his part, the Executive Director of the Institute, Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, stressed: “The Department of Health's mortality statistics take a long time to prepare and publish. The newly published data help to perceive mortality in the short term, without the extensive purification protocol required by official statistics. In this way, we demonstrate our Government's commitment to transparency, and we are also preparing to respond more quickly to the mortality that may occur after the next hurricane. The data will be available even if there is no regular electric power service in Puerto Rico. This disclosure literally saves lives. It's the least we can do to recognize and honor the memory of the thousands of people who died as a result of Hurricane Maria.”

The announcement opens the way for the filing of a lawsuit that the Institute had filed in May of this year to force the Department of Health to provide this data on a recurring basis in order to comply with Resolution No. 2018-03 of the Institute's Board of Directors. In accordance with its Organic Law, the Institute has the power to demand or require from any governmental body the information or data it deems necessary for statistical purposes.

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 www.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 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 the SDC in 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: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook accounts (statistics.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico).

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

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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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