Antonio Javier Ramos Guardiola, director of the Puerto Rico Innovation & Technology Service (PRIT), briefed the transition committee on the agency’s digital transformation work and the capacity constraints that, he said, limit further progress.

Ramos described three priorities: modernize infrastructure, set interoperability as a contracting requirement, and strengthen identity and access management. He said the government migrated the essential identity database known as Davip Plus to the cloud in January and noted it stores about 17 terabytes of identity data. PRIT reported 2.5 million citizens can use nine transactions via the government mobile application and that the Ideal identity capability has processed about 1.8 million transactions.

Why this matters: PRIT manages many cross‑agency digital touchpoints and the director said modern infrastructure and standardized APIs will allow real‑time connectivity among systems and reduce duplication. He recommended preserving interoperability clauses in future contracts and suggested the incoming administration consider a platform replica on‑premises to improve resilience.

Staffing, scope and resources: Ramos said PRIT currently has 51 employees but a contractor study estimates an optimal staff of about 220 to meet statutory responsibilities and municipal coverage added by Law 40/49 provisions. He said recruiting technical talent has been hampered by current pay scales and that PRIT is pursuing a plan of classification and retribution. “Necesitamos alrededor de doscientos veinte empleados,” he said, and characterized the gap as the principal constraint on execution.

Procurement, budgets and ROI: PRIT listed five major contracts that together total roughly $122 million and told the committee that government‑wide technology spending is difficult to measure because the chart of accounts does not isolate technology subscriptions versus goods. The director said PRIT has visibility over proposals that pass through it and that better budget objects and asset‑management tooling are needed to compute return on investment across government projects.

Cybersecurity and federal support: Ramos said PRIT reduced major incidents from five in 2022 (with about $500,000 in response costs) to a single incident in the current fiscal year with under $100,000 in response costs. He highlighted PRIT’s participation in the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, EDR and other tools to catalogue and protect assets across agencies and municipalities.

Interoperability and inclusion: PRIT urged immediate integration of municipalities into the radar/vial and other public services modules, recommended expansion of Ideal to more agencies, and said digital projects should retain analog alternatives to accommodate citizens without internet access. He also advocated for legislative changes to strengthen PRIT’s enforcement tools — “dar garras fiscalizadoras”— and for establishing clustered CIOs or CEO roles inside large agencies to reduce decision bottlenecks.

Requests and follow up: PRIT agreed to provide the committee additional documentation requested on contracts, budgets, staffing analyses and implementation plans. The director emphasized that many recommendations require both additional staff and modest changes in budgeting practices to be fully measurable.

The session closed with committee members thanking PRIT staff and scheduling the next hearings focused on fiscal topics.