By The Star Staff
The island House of Representatives began its transition process to new leadership over the weekend in a manner that was open and transparent, House Speaker Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montañez said on Sunday.
The House leader described the meeting as cordial and maintained that his administration was ready to demonstrate the result of the controls and good administrative practices put into effect to clean up the institution’s finances.
“Since we began these four years, we exercised fiscal and administrative controls to stabilize the finances of the House of Representatives, with accurate actions, a good, stable, and consistent relationship with agencies such as the AAFAF [Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority], the Treasury Department, OGP [Office of Management and Budget] and the [Financial] Oversight [and Management] Board,” Hernández Montañez said.
“This effective negotiation and the consistency of our work team led us to the achievement that today we have a budget of $2.5 million for the liquidations of employees that end in December 2024,” he added.
Another achievement that Hernández Montañez emphasized was that the House concluded the four-year term without debts or new pending claims, leaving a reserve of $461,913 for the next administration. He also announced a projected cash balance of some $4.8 million as of Dec. 31, 2024.
Meanwhile, lawmakers highlighted various technological achievements during the term that will allow the continuity of legislative work in an effective and structured way. Those were the following:
* The creation of a “dashboard” on the official website of the lower chamber breaking down the expenses of the House of Representatives for the purposes of accountability.
* The creation of annual financial statements was incorporated into the House’s financial system
* The replacement of all communications switches in the computer network to prevent cyber attacks and optimize the technological infrastructure of the lower chamber. (Cybersecurity)
* The replacement of the voting computers (EVOTE) in the House chamber.
* The implementation of the Electronic Filing System for Measures.
* The installation of a system of robotic cameras in all hearing rooms for remote public hearings via ZOOM.
* The replacement of all computers in the legislative and administrative offices.
* The update of the Attendance and Human Resources Registration System.
* The implementation of an app for service requests in the Citizen Services Office.
* The implementation of an app that allows the House’s main telephone switchboard to be attended remotely.
* The acquisition of laptop computers for the Purchasing and Services, Finance and Budget, and Human Capital offices so that the main operations continue remotely in case of emergencies.
“Instituting technology from day one allowed us to guarantee transparency, citizen participation, and access to information,” the outgoing House speaker said. “We demonstrated that with effective administrative mechanisms, we could protect the institution’s integrity and return credibility to our [House] of Representatives. We bequeath this achievement to the people and trust that the incoming administration will continue it.”
House Speaker Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montañez, as it was expected, painted quite a rosy scenario as he refers to the "transition" from the NPP administration of Mr. Pierluisi to the NPP administration of Mrs. Gonzalez. He even talked about "cordial" exchange among those attending the meeting, facilitated, thankfully, by all the electronic mechanisms that his administration instituted to accomplish, as he put it, "to allowed us to guarantee transparency, citizen participation, and access to information,”
Unfortunately, the NPP nor the PDP are characterized by transparency or anything that look, smell or taste like transparency, their government consistently has maintained their official activities behind close door and away from the public. Let's not forget that not too long-ago Mr. Rivera Schatz,…