CPI: the Board’s public face tied to the PNP

On October 25, 2016, the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) revealed that the Fiscal Control Board (JCF) signed a contract with Forculus Strategic Communication — a communications consultancy — without registering it at the Office of the Comptroller or disclosing amount or duration. Francisco Cimadevilla, Forculus’s executive director, admitted the Board was still evaluating “where and how” to register and disclose contracts: “It will be a matter of days.”

Cimadevilla worked in the Pedro Rosselló administration (1993–1999) and donated $11,153 to the PNP between 2011 and 2016 (Electoral Comptroller). Forculus accumulated more than $1 million in contracts under Fortuño: OGP $50,000; Governor’s Office $382,500; GDB seven contracts for $563,600 (several signed when Carlos García — now a JCF member — chaired GDB); CFI $380,000. Edward Zayas, former Fortaleza communications chief under Fortuño and ex Vocero/ENDI, appeared as the Board’s first press contact via Forculus; previously, releases came from García Padilla’s team. Forculus also listed clients such as Metropistas/Abertis (PR-22/PR-5), Pattern Energy, Doral, and Johnson & Johnson.

Zayas said the contracting was competitive, but the Board’s public RFPs were only for legal advice and strategic consulting. He invoked future transparency: PROMESA §103 exempts the Board from territorial public-contracting laws; Title I requires federal ethics and working with the Comptroller to publish government contracts. Lisandra Rivera (Comptroller): every contract with Government public funds must be registered — Forculus’s was not. Treasury remits accounts and disbursements to the Board. Constitutional scholar Carlos Ramos González: PROMESA creates an oversight vacuum — a “Board of nobody,” neither clearly territorial nor federal.

PNP ties on the Board (García/GDB Fortuño; Carrión/Pierluisi) do not, by themselves, equal illegality. An unregistered contract ≠ adjudicated theft. This note does not allege a crime.