P.R. Laws tit. 3, § 974
In addition to the general responsibilities set forth by law, the Institute shall have the following duties and powers:
(a) To establish the quality criteria for the data and statistics compiling systems in the government agencies, performance indices, degree of reliability of the information, suitability and effectiveness of indicators pursuant to the needs of our people and the requirements of modern economics.
(b) To set forth the norms and nomenclature for the statistical products and the typification of the procedures and methods that shall govern the statistical activities. This item shall also apply to the government organisms that receive federal funds for the management and production of statistical information, unless otherwise provided in any applicable federal regulation, pursuant to, or at the express written request of, a federal agency.
(c) To analyze, interpret and disclose the statistical data and information obtained by means of their own survey, government agencies, or external sources, and to produce their own statistics, as deemed necessary to complement the statistical production of the government organisms.
(d) To promote public access and expedite the delivery of data, statistics and reports based on said information produced by the government agencies, with the exception of the reserve that is essential to protect the privacy owed to the firms, individuals and entities that claim the confidentiality guarantees that proceed in law.
(e) To set forth strict dockets by means of regulation for the publication of statistical data and information, in coordination with government organisms. Similarly, the Institute shall establish the necessary mechanisms to ensure compliance with said dockets that the government organisms, among which it may include the imposition of administrative fines provided by this chapter.
(f) To prepare and maintain an up to date Inventory of Statistics of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Said document shall contain all important statistical activities performed or planned to be performed by government organisms, as well as a detailed listing of all the statistical products, series or indicators produced. Furthermore, it shall contain the publication docket of the statistics of the government organisms.
(g) To publish the Inventory of Statistics of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico along with the methodology used in the preparation of such statistics and the adopted regulations in the Government’s Gateway on the Internet.
(h) To practice audits of compliance with the norms and regulations it adopts of its own accord or by request of an interested party, to identify corrective measures that should be adopted and to formulate the public statements that it deems justified for the achievement of the objectives set forth in this chapter, after notifying the agency chief, the person concerned, the Legislature, and the Governor in writing.
Any government organism concerned subject to an inspection, review, investigation or auditing process under this subsection shall be bound to expedite access to any document, material, information or space that the Institute deems necessary, or otherwise shall be subject to the imposition of fines, as set forth by this chapter. The Institute shall promulgate regulations to establish the parameters of the evaluation and auditing processes.
(i) To promote continued theoretical and practical training for the personnel assigned to the tasks of compiling data and statistics in government agencies, procure the provision of the technology, programming and equipment necessary for such personnel, as well as the fair remuneration that stimulates their permanence in public service.
(j) To broaden the interagency coordination in the production of data and statistics to avoid duplication of efforts and lack of coherence between interrelated factors. For such purposes, the Institute shall prepare norms, methods and procedures to improve the Statistical Production Service, regulate the surveys, census, returns, documents, forms, questionnaires, interviews, and any other method used by government organisms for the compiling of information so as to reduce the burden imposed upon informants from private entities, eliminating [duplication] in the information requirements, and increasing the efficiency of the processes. To achieve this, it shall establish the necessary mechanisms to review, demand modifications, or vouch for the utilization of any medium.
(k) To perform of its own accord, or by request to such effects, studies and investigations regarding the data and statistics compiling systems as requested by government agencies, as well as the municipal governments and the federal government.
(l) To offer expert counseling to the government agencies and the municipal governments that collaborate or are interested in information on the procedure used to prepare the federal census and on any other census or survey that is either projected or carried out.
(m) To develop coordination between the Institute, the government agencies and the public and private educational entities to expedite academic research on the effectiveness of the data and statistics compilation systems pursuant to the experiences and recommendations of scholars on this matter and on experience in the implementation of said systems. To such effects, it shall promote and urge the formation of experts in the diverse fields of statistics and their application.
(n) To provide, in coordination with government organisms, the priority actions regarding statistical activities and the objectives and goals for achieving the development of said statistical activities. For said purposes, the Institute shall prepare the Statistical Information Annual Plan, which shall contain recommendations regarding:
(1) Priority improvement of the statistical processes and products of government agencies, including resources such as personnel, equipment, systems, and required studies;
(2) programming of projects to be charged to the Institute of Statistics Fund;
(3) all those new products that should be produced with the corresponding activities for their implementation;
(4) the results of any audits performed pursuant to this chapter.
(o) To oversee that the national accounting methodologies are in accordance with the United Nations National Account Systems.
(p) To collaborate with the Federal Affairs Administration in the discharge of the Administration’s duty to promote the full inclusion of Puerto Rico’s statistics, as collected by local government agencies, into the national statistics produced by the Federal Government and nongovernmental organizations that receive federal funding, in order to provide for the measurement mechanisms that allows us to compare the development of Puerto Rico and the performance of our people with that of the states of the United States, in accordance with the provisions of § 1704(j) of this title, known as the “Federal Affairs Administration of Puerto Rico”.
(q) To oversee that the national accounting methodologies are in accordance with the United Nations National Account Systems.
(r) To serve as a single center for the processing of information requests for the private sector.
(s) To be the co-owner of all the information and statistic product developed by government organisms; to be able to aggregate it, diffuse it and sell it as it deems convenient, subject to the confidentiality requirements established in this chapter.
In the case of the sale [of said information], the same shall be conducted pursuant to the commonwealth and federal norms that govern these matters.
The provisions of this subsection shall not work in prejudice of exclusivity rights contained in any agreement executed by any government organism with any person, whether natural or juridical, that has been signed prior to the date of effectiveness of this act.
(t) To serve as consultation and cooperation entity for all organisms in the provision of technical services specialized in the field of statistics, such as coordinating or taking samples or surveys, among others, upon written request of the heads of the government organisms. The Director of the Institute may require from the government organism making the request the reimbursement corresponding to the expenses incurred in the processing thereof.
(u) To provide the University of Puerto Rico with technical assistance in the drafting of the “Puerto Rico Human Development Report.”
Notice This section has more than one version with varying effective dates. Second of two versions of this section.
History —Aug. 28, 2003, No. 209, § 5; July 27, 2004, No. 170, § 3; July 30, 2016, No. 95, § 1; Aug. 8, 2016, No. 143, § 1.