Roig Fuertes denies increase in trust positions at Family Department.

Family Secretary Suzanne Roig Fuertes 

By THE STAR STAFF

Family Secretary Suzanne Roig Fuertes denied on Monday that the proposed budget for fiscal year (FY) 2026-2027 includes an increase in trust positions or in the payroll for those positions.

“The Proposed Budget for FY2027 for the Secretariat of the Department of the Family does not include an increase in the number of trust positions, nor a net increase in their payroll,” Roig Fuertes stated in written remarks.

The official said any characterization to the contrary “is incorrect and deviates from the Department’s budgetary reality.”

Her statements come after Popular Democratic Party Senate Minority Leader Luis Javier Hernández Ortiz alleged that the budget recommended by Gov. Jenniffer González Colón allocates an additional $1 million for trust positions within the Family Department.

Hernández Ortiz stated in a press conference that the increase was part of a pattern of increases in line items related to trust positions and professional services within the proposed budget for FY 2026-2027.

Roig Fuertes noted that the total budget for payroll and related costs for the Family Department secretariat for FY 2027 amounts to $17 million, a figure she said represents a reduction of some $587,000 compared to the allocation approved for FY 2026 -- equivalent to a 3.3% decrease in total payroll expenditure.

She said the agency, in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), carried out an accounting reclassification among internal payroll line items.

“Specifically, a portion of the expenditure that was historically -- and incorrectly -- allocated to the ‘Regular Positions Salaries’ line was reallocated to the ‘Trust Positions Salaries’ line, which is where it belongs from an accounting standpoint,” Roig Fuertes said.

She asserted that the number of authorized trust positions is not increasing, and that the adjustment reflects a correction within the budgetary line item intended to accurately reflect the actual expenditure for positions that have already been authorized and filled.

The family secretary attributed the reclassification to an analytical methodology employed by the OMB that is based on three years of historical data regarding payroll, roster execution and budgetary assessment.

“What the FY2027 budget reflects is neither an increase in trust personnel nor an increase in public spending, but rather an exercise in transparency, as well as accounting and budgetary discipline,” Roig Fuertes stated.