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Nearly 60% of the budget for Puerto Rico, approximately $14 billion, is allocated to private contracts, stated Issel Masses Ferrer, the executive director of Sembrando Sentido, on Thursday.
“The fact is that in the previous fiscal year, comparing it to total public expenditure, it has already surpassed 60% of what the funds signify,” Masses mentioned during a radio interview. “This is crucial as we observe a [public] workforce that is continually declining, restricted resources in oversight entities, diminishing capacity within the government, and concurrently, a vital transfer of essential services to external parties.”
The nonprofit organization has announced the unveiling of its new website, Contracts in Law, on Saturday, aimed at fostering transparency, monitoring, and evaluation of government contracting in Puerto Rico.
Masses highlighted that the rise in private contracts aligns with the increase of former government workers returning as contractors.
“They are more costly for us. We cannot ascertain the quality of the services, and the outcomes reflect our daily experiences; there is no progress,” she remarked. “It is evident, when we examine the data and observe our surroundings, that improvement is lacking despite the notion that contracting was the intended remedy for our challenges.”
