On the occasion of the celebration of Sunshine Week, nonprofit organization Espacios Abiertos urged the leadership of the three branches of government to adopt four “open government proposals” to achieve a “fairer and equitable” Puerto Rico. The proposals call for: amending the Transparency and Open Data laws; adopting an “Open Checkbook” program; creating the public […]
The proposed new agreement struck recently by the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico with bondholder groups implies higher annual fixed payments and cash disbursements and for a longer period of time than in the October 2020 proposal, according to Espacios Abiertos Senior Public Policy Analyst Daniel Santamaría-Ots. “What remains constant with this […]
Aware of the difficulties that people face in inserting themselves into government debates and decisions on fiscal and budget issues, nonprofit Espacios Abiertos analyzed thousands of documents from the past 16 years to develop the new Observatoriofiscalpr.com platform, which seeks to provide greater accessibility and narrow information gaps. Daniel Santamaría-Ots, senior analyst of public policy […]
As part of its mission to develop civic capacities, Puerto Rico-based nonprofit Espacios Abiertos created the Community Laboratory, an empowerment and leadership project aimed at helping communities strengthen their recovery and sustainability skills, through a virtual platform. Project Coordinator, Carla J. Alonso, said the online site gathers tools to support the communities developed since the […]
The economic crisis Puerto Rico is facing while in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic requires forceful action on the part of the government and Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico, according to nonprofit Espacios Abiertos. “When we analyze the international context and Puerto Rico’s situation in light of the economic projections contained […]
Puerto Rico-based nonprofit Open Spaces warned Monday that the “corruption virus” incubates in emergency situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic and proposed a series of measures to Gov. Wanda Vázquez and Health Secretary Lorenzo González, as recent cases have come to light about shady government purchases or questions about their delivery. In a letter, Open […]
One year after Judge Laura Taylor Swain approved the agreement on the Sales Tax Financing Corp. (COFINA, in Spanish) bonds which, with the consent of a majority of the members of the Puerto Rican legislature, was presented by the executive and the Financial Oversight and Management Board to the bondholders, a study by economist Daniel […]
In a two-to-one divided opinion, a three-judge panel of the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals ruled to keep information on tax abatements confidential and inaccessible to the public, in a case filed by nonprofit Espacios Abiertos. In doing so,the panel reversed a San Juan Superior Court decision compelling the Puerto Rico Treasury Department to publicly […]
Nonprofit organization Espacios Abiertos recently evaluated the government’s transparency portal prepared by contractor CGI Technologies, and concluded it falls short of complying with more than half of criteria set forth by Transparency International to avoid corruption in post-disaster recovery processes. Specifically, Espacios Abiertos draws attention to: the need to provide details for subdivisions within municipalities; […]
Nonprofit organization Espacios Abiertos exposed a number of “suspicious elements” of the proposed agreement to restructure the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation (known as COFINA by its initials in Spanish) debt, which U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain will review this week. “We said it last year and we stand by it today,” […]
Nonprofit organization Espacios Abiertos asked the San Juan Superior Court to enforce Puerto Rico’s constitutional right to access to information.
An Earned Income Tax Credit, an issue that is taking center stage as part of the discussion of the Puerto Rico tax reform, “does justice to workers” and is “good public policy,” Cecille Blondet, director of nonprofit Espacios Abiertos, said. Upon unveiling a study it recently commissioned from Economist María E. Enchautegui, Espacios Abiertos believes […]
A decision by San Juan Superior Court Judge Anthony Cuevas pushed nonprofit organization Espacios Abiertos closer to gaining access to the debt sustainability analysis the Puerto Rico government used to draft the Fiscal Plan.
Before Hurricane María, if Puerto Rico were to pay off its debt without completely choking off economic and social development, it needed a total cancellation of the interest on the public debt and a reduction in the principal of approximately 45 percent to 90 percent. Now, in the wake of the storm, the debt relief needed is much greater.
Espacios Abiertos, an organization that seeks to strengthen the capacity of individuals, groups and communities to act effectively in the political, social and institutional framework, hosted public hearings Wednesday to give citizens a chance to testify on the government’s proposed budget for Fiscal 2018.
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