The Municipal Revenue Collection Center (CRIM) reiterated Tuesday to the Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) the importance of accessing its funds to execute the pilot project that will identify the owners of more than 56,000 properties in Puerto Rico and update the digital cadaster.

Furthermore, in the letter dated March 31, CRIM governing board president Jesús Colón Berlingeri and executive director Javier García Cintrón urged the FOMB to focus on its oversight role, without seeking to “replace or override the powers delegated to CRIM’s governing board.”They also urged the FOMB to focus on its oversight role, without seeking to “replace or override the powers delegated to CRIM’s governing board.

The CRIM’s letter responds to the fact that, on March 24, the FOMB sent a communication to the municipal tax agency questioning its capacity to execute the pilot plan, which seeks to identify the ownership of some 56,324 properties.

To achieve this goal, on February 4, CRIM requested authorization from the FOMB to use $6,863,411 of its non-appropriated funds. Part of that sum would be used to hire 214 temporary employees for a period of two years.

However, in its March 24 response, the FOMB also requested documents that CRIM claims it has already provided.

In light of the situation, the CRIM leadership stated in its letter that “it would be of great benefit for the FOMB to understand the objectives of this project and offer practical suggestions that will help to achieve a successful implementation, instead of creating additional obstacles to effective collaboration”.

As an example of the documents already submitted, the CRIM mentioned the audited financial reports, which are regularly reviewed by FOMB staff.

Another request was the list of municipalities interested in participating in the pilot plan. The CRIM indicated that this list was submitted to the FOMB on March 17.

Regarding the compliance plan and economic impact, the CRIM clarified that it was discussed at the 2025-2026 quarterly meeting with the FOMB and also clarified how it will compensate municipal employees who are part of the project.

Likewise, CRIM assured that it offered guarantees to measure the performance and economic impact of the project, since the CRIM 360 Platform provides tools to manage and supervise its execution in real time, in addition to the fact that there will be CRIM Central Office staff actively monitoring the project.

In addition, in the document, the CRIM reaffirmed its commitment to collaborate with the FOMB, but for the fulfillment of its designated role of fiscal oversight.

"Some of the observations raised in the FOMB’s communication transcend fiscal oversight and, in practice, encroach on administrative and public policy functions that the law assigns exclusively to CRIM’s governing board. The Municipal Code clearly establishes the governing board’s authority to direct the operations, define initiatives and execute CRIM’s programs," the CRIM leaders added in the letter.

In this line, they reiterated the willingness of the public entity to provide “relevant and reasonable information to support the evaluation of this request submitted. However, the success of this effort depends on the relationship of institutional respect and clarity of the roles of each institution”.

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This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.