The executive director of the Financial Advisory Authority and the Puerto Rico Tax Agency, Omar Marrero, assured this Saturday that the government of Pedro Pierluisi “will not allow the pensions of our employees to be reduced” in the face of a deficit of several million dollars for retirees.

“This government will not allow the pensions of our employees to be reduced. This will always continue to be our objective,” Marrero said in a press release in response to a letter published this Friday by the employees’ pension system. Electric Power Authority (Sreaee).

This letter states that the organization’s deficit as of June 30, 2021 exceeded $3,000 million.

The letter also points out that for the 2022 financial year, the contribution of the Electric Power Authority (PREPA) is expected to be 166.38% of the total payroll of all members, equivalent to $23.8 million. per month.

However, according to retirees, despite all the actuarial reports provided to PREPA and the collection efforts which have been and continue to be made monthly with the dependency and reception organizations for Sreae members, the obligation has not been respected. .

The letter also informs that as of December 31, 2022, PREPA owed Sreaee $895.8 million for arrears of normal overdue contributions.

In view of this, the Sreaee assured that the Fiscal Oversight Council of Puerto Rico and the PREPA had not complied with the PROMESA law, which requires that the tax plans certified by the tax entity provide sufficient funds for the payment of the pensions.

Marrero, for his part, replied that “the Government of Puerto Rico and the Budget Oversight Council have requested information from the Board of Directors of the Electric Power Authority Employee Retirement System to confirm the information disclosed to the media. We keep waiting for that.”

Likewise, he assured that “whatever information we extract on the situation in the Sreaee, the administration of Governor Pedro Pierluisi has always had as a public policy to protect the most vulnerable populations”.

“Such a commitment was demonstrated last year when the government successfully insisted on protecting the pensions of retired central government employees against repeated attempts at reduction during the debt restructuring process,” he said. -he adds.

Marrero, in turn, claimed that “just as we fought for the pensions of our retirees and we achieved that, by giving mental and emotional stability to 165,000 central government officials, we are fighting to safeguard the pensions of the 12,000 families who depend on the Sreaee”.

“We seek the goodwill of the Electric Power Authority and the Sreaee Board of Directors to bring peace of mind to the retired employees who make up this system, and their families,” he said

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