AUTHORIZED STATEMENTS BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS ON CONGRESSIONAL EXPRESSION AGAINST PROPOSED CONSOLIDATION AND OUTSOURCING
Last Friday, a group of 15 congressional members of the United States House of Representatives, both Republican and Democratic, signed a letter to express their rejection of the provisions on the Institute of Statistics contained in Reorganization Plan No. 1 and its enabling bills, both Senate Bill 809 and House Bill 1403.
In their communication, the congressmen recognize that the Institute of Statistics is a key ally of federal statistical agencies and that, greater collaboration between the Institute and federal statistical agencies, is essential for the Federal Government to produce the same statistics on Puerto Rico, which are already produced for all 50 states of the United States.
We greatly appreciate these expressions and we join them. That's the way it is. The Institute has been working for years, for example, to include the economy of Puerto Rico in statistics on the United States economy. For this reason, the Federal Government has required us to make some improvements to the methodologies used by the Planning Board.
In fact, we are currently the only entity in Puerto Rico that dedicates its own resources, including 10% of our budget, to making these improvements. For this purpose, there are already newly signed interagency agreements between the Institute and the Federal Government. It's just a matter of being allowed to execute them. We are extremely concerned that the proposed reorganization will stop or postpone these important projects, which could undermine the inclusion of Puerto Rico in the United States economy.
We are confident that in the coming days their counterparts in the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico will carefully weigh Reorganization Plan No. 1 and its enabling bills and will also join the call of their peers in the Federal Congress regarding the importance of maintaining an independent Institute of Statistics.
Likewise, we trust that in the coming days more voices will continue to unite and speak out against the proposed reorganization, just as more than 1,700 people have already done through the cyber petition on the change.org platform initiated and promoted by the American Statistical Association.
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.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
