Incompetence and politics: A very bad combination

Incompetence and politics: A very bad combination
Let’s rationally think this through. There is no doubt that San Ignacio, along with Commonwealth-Parkway, Saint John’s, Robinson, Perpetuo Socorro and American Military Academy are among the best schools in Puerto Rico. I must have forgotten one or two and I am sure that some of our readers will write the opinion page and will tell us which schools I missed.
Among Universities in the United States, there are a few names that always comesup: Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Brown, Dartmouth, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania and I could go on and on. And I am sure I will also get a letter mentioning one I missed.
So, the Puerto Rican government, looking for a good candidate to head the Statistics Institute of Puerto Rico, found a fellow named Mario Marazzi Santiago.
Who is this guy?
Well, he graduated from San Ignacio, went on to Harvard to earn a Bachelors degree in Economics, goes to London to the School of Economics and gets his masters degree and then he earns a Doctorate in Cornell University.
That is a home run for the government of Puerto Rico. I can’t think right now, off the top of my head, of anyone in the whole island, with these qualifications. Not one person comes to mind.
What about experience?
He worked for the Federal Reserve System in Washington D.C as an economist before deciding to come to Puerto Rico and work for the government here.
Probably with a great desire to help his place of birth, Puerto Rico, he starts working for the Statistics Institute of Puerto Rico, a tiny, very tiny institute with a small 3 million dollar budget. Well, because of the crisis, it went down to 2 million and finally awarded one million dollars to work with.
He must be brilliant and educated but also a little bit crazy because he accepted.
He started working hard and very soon the results could be seen. He has trained about 200 statistics professionals in the government; he started a committee to coordinate statistics in Puerto Rico so now we have an instrument to be able to learn where information can be accessed and who is responsible for providing it.
He is also working on a Science and Technology survey, and a Buying Index for Manufacturers, which has never existed and manufacturers really need.
He worked on a Consumer price index where he was attempting to coordinate, to mesh the old index with the new one so that the economic activity of Puerto Rico could be measured in real terms.
He even mentioned that mortality rates for years have not been measured and that is something that must be done regularly
For example, not measuring mortality, especially the causes will provoke more deaths. That indicator is used to determine which services the people need, for diabetics, for cancer, strokes, aids, whatever the sickness. That data is also used to be able to acquire Federal Funds.
This young man wants to have information available for the people when they visit a government agency. And he has a good attitude and work ethic to make it happen.
It is absurd that when someone goes to one of the agencies to look for information, he is told that it is not available or that he or she must write someone a letter to get authorization to receive the information.
Public information is public, and it belongs to everyone. No one can be denied access to it.
He wants to change the attitude of protecting information. He finds here a culture of fear of sharing information when in reality; the only way to improve the statistics is if we develop a culture of sharing information among departments, so that all departments can determine where they can be of help.
He believes this “withholding culture” is our Achilles tendon. He says people don’t realize that sometimes the most basic and simplest piece of information can prevent chaos.
In private business and in government, statistics help make better decisions.
He offers a very good example in an interview with reporter Joanisabel Gonzalez of el Nuevo Dia.
Right now in a study, it shows that Puerto Rico has one computer for every one hundred persons while the Dominican Republic has two. If that information is seen by a foreign investor that specializes in electronics, he might decide that Puerto Rico is not a good place to invest. What makes it even worse is that the information is wrong. Puerto Rico indeed has more computers than the Dominican Republic.
Well, you have probably heard that sometimes the best employee is punished instead of praised. Sometimes when you do a good job, someone else doesn’t like it for whatever reason and you are fired.
Well, Marazzi got fired and according to him unjustly and without following the right procedures to fire him.
Seems like a political firing in a job that is not political.
Being a smart fellow, he decided to sue. He won’t lie down and take it; he will simply fight, because he might be smarter than the people trying to fire him.
We need guys like him; in fact, guys like him are our only hope for an intelligent and effective government. And he should be backed by everyone because when we all sit down, witness injustices and we remain silent, we become partners in that action and that is not good for us and for Puerto Rico.
I hope that the governor or someone in a position of authority intervenes and gives this public official the tools he needs to be able to do his job without fear of negative consequences.