Institute succeeds in getting UPR Planning School to access data to maintain accreditation

PRESS RELEASE

Statistics Institute releases new version of the Occupied Positions Report

A new programming improves the visualization of the statistics of positions held in the government

A new programming carried out by the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics will allow a better visualization of the Occupied Positions (PO) Report in the Government and the ability to compare current information with previous months, among other advantages. For the redesign of this report, free of charge and open source software was used R, so now it is done completely through this program, eliminating manual processes that were previously carried out.

“This new program is an advanced one because it optimizes the efficiency and effectiveness of statistical processes on this topic, improves our ability to monitor government positions with updated information, and allows comparisons to be made with previous years.”, said Dr. Orville M. Disdier, executive director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics.

The new design, as indicated by Ana Gabriela Jara Castro, manager of statistical projects at the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, includes a monthly report tabulated by agency and type of position, in addition to the time series, with the following information:

1. Number of POs at the end of the reference month, broken down by type of position (career, trust, temporary, irregular, among others) and by type of agency.
2. Monthly change in the number of POs by type of position and by type of entity.
3. Total PO for each government entity.

Jara Castro explained that, within this new format, a table (Table 4) was included that represents entities that have not reported their positions to the Office of the Comptroller for more than six months.

“The inclusion of this new table will allow the accountability process, for positions in government entities, to be a more transparent one, and more accessible to the population. The main objective of this report is to summarize the information of all the agencies represented in the Office of the Comptroller on its website,” said Ana G. Jara Castro, who was primarily responsible for the redesign of the report.

According to the website of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, the statistics presented in the Report on Statistics of Occupied Government Positions, come from the Register of Occupied Positions and Related Information, created under Act No. 103-2006, known as the Puerto Rico Government Tax Reform Act of 2006. This law states that every governmental entity has a duty to certify this information to the Comptroller's Office on a monthly basis. In those cases where the entity has not fulfilled its duty to certify its figures in a timely manner, the Statistics Institute performs a simple statistical attribution of the missing data to complete the statistics. All figures are under constant review and may change in future reports. The January 2021 edition is the most recent edition of this report and reflects that the number of total POs in government has fallen from 275,448 in January 2008 to 150,502 in January 2021. In the same way, “De Carrera” POs have fallen from 218,540 in January 2008 to 109,975 in January 2021. The report can be accessed through the following link: Statistics of Occupied Positions in the Government.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity tasked with 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 accessible quickly and universally.

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

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Contact:

Idia M. Martinez, R-28

787-603-3200

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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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