San Juan – The Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) has filed a legal motion to compel the Department of Treasury and its acting secretary, Nelson J. Pérez Méndez, to release invoices from an advertising agency that have been withheld, ensuring compliance with his ministerial duty of transparency in public management.
“We have exhausted all available administrative remedies to obtain the requested information through the Treasury’s Communications Office without success. We fulfilled our duty to request the invoices over two months ago. With no other remedy available, we have turned to the Court of First Instance, San Juan Division,” said Carla Minet, the CPI’s executive director.
The CPI’s initial effort to obtain the information began on September 25, 2024, when its journalist José Manuel Encarnación Martínez sent an email to Vilmar Trinta Negrón, director of the Treasury’s Communications Office. The request included invoices from the advertising agency Digimedia LLC/MOZart Advertising related to any of the Department of Treasury’s dependencies for the period between 2021 and September 25, 2024.
Despite multiple follow-up efforts, the advertising agency’s invoices were not delivered.
The CPI, through its attorneys from the Access to Information Clinic at the Inter American University School of Law, believes that the request submitted to the Department of Treasury complies with the requirements of Article 6 of the Transparency and Expedited Procedure for Access to Public Information Act (Law No. 141-2019). Furthermore, everything requested is public information and of high public interest to the people of Puerto Rico.
The CPI is represented in this case by Clinic attorneys Luis José Torres Asencio, Steven P. Lausell Recurt, and Judith Berkan.
