Developing and nurturing a high-performing government workforce is vital to Puerto Rico’s future. To better understand the civil service’s current characteristics, the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico requested detailed information about government employees from the Office of the Administration and Transformation of Human Resources (OATRH), the government’s central personnel management agency. The …
In Puerto Rico, more than 39,000 eligible entities have received financial relief through the Federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Back in June of 2020, the FOMB’s Research and Policy Department published an essay on the importance of small businesses to Puerto Rico’s economy and provided recommendations to the government on how to design a locally …
In an effort to understand the current state of human resource management in the government, our Research and Policy Department developed a series of reports to help guide the Commonwealth in their human capital planning, implementation, and evaluation processes. This first report includes a thorough examination of the existing policy framework, which includes the evaluation …
Government procurement in Puerto Rico is responsible for some of the highest levels of spending in the economy. With that scale, complex and dysfunctional procurement can be eating up management time and money that could be better used elsewhere. The Commonwealth must modernize and improve its procurement systems to satisfy the citizens’ needs and safeguard …
Given the challenges of the central government and the fiscal sustainability of many municipal governments, this might be the best chance Puerto Rico has to truly transform the entire government structure. Author: Arnaldo Cruz, FOMB’s Director of Research and Policy Overview The proliferation of departments, public corporations, and agencies in Puerto Rico has severely hindered …
Essay: Rethinking Government, a new Commonwealth-Muni partnership Read More »
While being major players of the economy, many small businesses are unable to weather a crisis like the one caused by COVID-19. Very small businesses, particularly those operating on small profit margins, are especially vulnerable, since they may not have the cash reserves and typically have fewer ways to access financing. Authors: Olivier Perrinjaquet & …
Modernizing Puerto Rico’s public health surveillance systems should be a top priority. Author: Arnaldo Cruz, FOMB’s Director of the Research and Policy Dept. As Puerto Rico moves towards re-opening the economy, the Government should do whatever it can to avoid or reduce the causes and effects of a second wave of infections by developing smart …
The COVID-19 emergency is unprecedented, and the potential impact is still uncertain. Author: Arnaldo Cruz Given this uncertainty, the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) must carefully evaluate medium- and long-term implications for teaching and student achievement. Based on current epidemiology models, there are three possible scenarios: an optimistic, a somewhat optimistic and a pessimistic …