Governor intends to eliminate PRITS, return functions to the OMB

Poincaré Díaz Peña is the acting director of the Office of Innovation and Technology Services (X via Poincaré Díaz Peña)

By THE STAR STAFF

Gov. Jenniffer González Colón said Monday that she is in the process of submitting a bill to the Legislature to eliminate the Office of Innovation and Technology Services (PRITS).

“This agency has not had a permanent director for the last five years. The last five years, so it precedes me,” the governor said at a press conference. “I believe we need to change public policy here. We are already drafting a bill to return PRITS to where it was previously, in the Office of Management and Budget.”

“I think this will generate savings. Right now, there’s a [acting] PRITS director named Poincaré Díaz, who was the person who was already directing the response to the cyberattack that occurred in April of this year,” González Colón said. “So, he’s an employee of the agency; he’s running the agency, so it’s operational. But I think we’re going to change public policy to cut costs. Because [the Office of] Management and Budget is certainly managing the federal government’s broadband program, the federal funds received for these types of programs that include Wi-Fi in public spaces. The interconnection systems that would fall under PRITS are being handled by the Office of Management and Budget, which was where it was originally located. So, at some point, we’ll be filing that bill to return it to what it was before, and then the director would continue to perform those functions.

After Antonio Ramos Guardiola’s dismissal as the head of PRITS in April, Luis Rodríguez Vega was appointed.

At the end of June, his appointment was also withdrawn. Martín Jiménez Morales was then appointed during the legislative recess, but was removed in September. The governor said Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz expressed reservations about the appointment.