Type to search

General Biz News

CIJ sues Oversight Board, Rosselló administration

CIJ Executive Director Carla Minet, center, and the nonprofit’s team of investigative reporters.

The Center for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) filed at the U.S. District Court for Puerto Rico a lawsuit against the Financial Oversight and Management Board protected by the Constitution and the laws of Puerto Rico, which recognize access to information as a fundamental human and constitutional right.

Meanwhile, it filed another lawsuit against La Fortaleza and Gov. Ricardo Rosselló at the San Juan Superior Court, also related to requests for information that the Executive branch has not addressed.

“The Financial Oversight and Management Board and the Government of Puerto Rico agree on something: The secrecy in the processes related to the ‘PROMESA’ Law, which deepens our democratic deficit,” said Carla Minet, executive director of the CIJ.

“Board members and the Rosselló administration are systematically and illegally denying public information. It seems that they do not understand that an informed citizenship can contribute to the decisions that are being taken at such a delicate time for the island. We will not resign ourselves to the lack of transparency. This is a way of limiting participation and oversight,”

The claims are the same in most of the documents requested. Among the requests made to the Board — and which have not been met — are nine different reports that are supposed to be submitted regularly on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis by the Government of Puerto Rico to the Board, according to the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA.)

Another request made several times by the CIJ to the Oversight Board and also claimed in the complaint refers to documents, reports, letters, emails and any other information or material exchanged between the Government and its agencies, and the Board. Likewise, materials exchanged between the Board or its staff and the U.S. Treasury Department or any official of that or other federal government agency or official on the status of the Board’s work.

“The people of Puerto Rico have the right to know the events that will affect their daily lives and the future of the island,” the suit said.

The Board has ignored the requests that have been made to it over the past months, or provided inadequate documentation, the CIJ alleges. The same has happened with the Rosselló administration, which was also asked for the individual fiscal plans of the government agencies and the audited financial statements.

Almost a year after being appointed to the Board, its members have also withheld the documents that were part of the “rigorous process” that they allegedly submitted to be named, which includes the ethical evaluation of their financial interests and conflicts of interest at the time of their appointments. Now, the CIJ is asking for them in court.

Board Chairman José Carrión told the press that the seven members handed over the financial disclosure and conflict of interest materials, among others, to the U.S. Treasury Department as part of a “rigorous” nomination process.

The Board published financial disclosure documents on its website, but they are dated February 2017, so the CIJ questions whether they were submitted to the U.S. Treasury Department in 2016 and does not know if they were the only ones, and if they were evaluated by some federal government agency, since the Board has not offered a response on the matter, the CIJ said.

In the lawsuit, the petitioners request the protocols, regulations, manuals or memorandums generated by the Board to carry out their work; Minutes of meetings held by the Board in full, it’s committees or its members.

“As we did with the García-Padilla administration, we will claim the people’s right to access public information. We hope that these lawsuits serve as an alert so that they immediately deliver the documents that we have asked from them in the traditional way, too many times already, “said Carla Minet.

Attorneys Judith Berkan and Stephen Lausell, and Luis José Torres and Annette Martínez, all of the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico Law School’s Legal Clinic, represent the CIJ before the Federal Court in this lawsuit.

Author Details
Author Details
This story was written by our staff based on a press release.
Tags:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *