The Puerto Rico Office of Government Ethics (OEG, in Spanish) will have to determine whether former Agriculture Secretary Ramón González Beiró had a conflict of interest when, as head of the Department of Agriculture and chair of the board of the Puerto Rico Land Authority (ATPR, in Spanish), he made decisions that may have helped facilitate a photovoltaic project on agricultural land owned by a corporation in which he is an investor.
The referral to the OEG was made by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), according to a report published Nov. 18, after an audit found that the former secretary may have had a conflict of interest in actions taken by the ATPR — an agency under the Department of Agriculture — in support of a renewable energy project in Salinas and Guayama. The project is being developed by Clean Flexible Energy, an affiliate of the coal-fired power producer AES. Part of the project would be built on land owned by Agriart LLC, a company in which González Beiró holds a stake.
In the OIG’s executive summary, which outlines the audit’s findings, the agency states that “the evidence collected” shows the renewable energy projects did, in fact, move forward on land owned by a “private company linked” to González Beiró. This arrangement was revealed in an investigation by the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI), which Bonita Radio also reported in October 2024.
Puerto Rico’s Government Ethics Act prohibits public officials from intervening, directly or indirectly, in any matter in which they have a conflict of interest that results in a benefit to themselves, a relative, or an associate. The law defines a conflict of interest as any situation in which a personal or financial interest is — or can reasonably be — at odds with the public interest. The CPI contacted González Beiró, but he declined to comment on the referral. The document states that the OIG found evidence of “the participation of individuals with a direct link to the former official in the leadership structure of the company that owns the land.”
The investigation published by The CPI and Bonita Radio showed that González Beiró signed off on the minutes of an ATPR meeting in March 2024 in which the agency extended a contract with Clean Flexible Energy through 2053 to facilitate a photovoltaic project on agricultural land. That land belongs to Agriart LLC, a company in which the former secretary holds an 18% ownership stake. His son and a business partner are listed as the company’s vice president and president, respectively.
The ATPR board’s referendum minutes dated March 13, 2024, state that leasing the Land Authority farm was necessary for Clean Flexible Energy to comply with its contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA, known by its Spanish acronym AEE) and to secure financing for the solar farm project.
Although the former Agriculture secretary under Gov. Pedro Pierluisi’s administration set up a blind trust to manage his private interests while in office and filed a recusal document with the OEG, the audit notes that auditors “identified subsequent elements that could have affected the effectiveness of that mechanism and created the appearance, or the potential, of a conflict of interest.”
Among the OIG’s findings: “The absence of full disclosure of relevant information about the company’s structure [Agriart LLC] at the time [the recusal] was evaluated as a conflict-of-interest prevention mechanism.”
The executive summary also states that under González Beiró’s leadership, the Department of Agriculture approved internal guidelines and procedures for evaluating renewable energy projects, processes that were later used to greenlight projects on land linked to Agriart LLC. At the same time, “multiple contracts related to these projects were formalized by government agencies that interact with the Department of Agriculture, which may have generated indirect benefits to the related private entity.”
Agriart LLC controls more than 1,800 cuerdas (a Puerto Rico land measure equivalent to roughly 0.97 acres) across the Aguirre neighborhood in Salinas and the Jobos neighborhood in Guayama, according to a document filed with the U.S. Department of Energy. On 661 cuerdas of those farms — land Agriart LLC leases to Clean Flexible Energy — the company plans to build an energy production project in which the photovoltaic installations would total 200 megawatts. The project aims to sell electricity into the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s (PREPA) distribution grid.
By law, González Beiró, as secretary of agriculture, also served as chair of the Puerto Rico Land Authority’s governing board. His signature at the bottom of the March minutes certifies that the meeting approving the lease extension passed by a majority of members, but it does not specify how the vote was taken.
The minutes state that the “board chair recused himself from participating in the evaluation and vote on this matter,” but they do not clarify whether González Beiró remained in the meeting room during discussion of the lease or left while the matter was being considered. If he did leave, the document does not explain how he could have attested to what took place during the meeting in the minutes.
In 2024, González Beiró told CPI that he did not remember whether he left the meeting during the discussion of the lease contract, but he insisted that the transaction had nothing to do with his family’s business interests. The OEG’s rules are clear: when an item arises in a meeting that presents a conflict of interest, the public official must recuse themselves and leave the meeting until the discussion ends and decisions are made on the matter.
The CPI could not corroborate what happened at the March 13, 2024, meeting because the Puerto Rico Land Authority did not have recordings of its board meetings — despite Act 159-2013, which requires the public corporation to record the meetings and keep them posted on its website.
This translation was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and clarity.
