This morning, the Insitute for Liberty issued a statement regarding a recent "Audit" conducted by the government of Puerto Rico:

Puerto Rico Government “Audit” is Governor Garcia Padilla’s Latest and Most Audacious Political Ploy

In response to a recently released Puerto Rican Government report which claims that up to $30 billion of Puerto Rico’s debt was issued in violation of its own constitutional debt limit, and thus should be considered illegitimate, the Institute for Liberty released the following statement:

“With this government-sponsored report, the Garcia Padilla Administration is demonstrating the immense lengths to which it will go to wipe out Puerto Rico’s public debt and avoid negotiating with its creditors in good faith.

“It is preposterous to suggest that, in violating its own laws and failing to notify investors that it had done so, Puerto Rico should be absolved of the obligation of repaying the creditors that lent it billions, most of whom are American retirement savers. It is equally outrageous that this government-sponsored report has been issued in spite of the fact that the Commonwealth has not released an actual, independent audit of its finances for the last two fiscal years.

“This is a brazen attempt to give Puerto Rico ultimate leverage in its lobbying effort to secure preferential treatment for public pension systems at the expense of the bondholders with whom it has entered into contracts. This is a point that is underscored by the fact that the one of the world’s largest labor unions, SEIU, played a major role in drafting this report.

“Unfortunately for Puerto Rico’s political elites, the Commonwealth is a territory of the United States and not a socialist dictatorship. Congress should hold the Puerto Rican Government accountable to the laws that govern all of us, and denounce this report as the brazen political ploy that it is."

The Institute for Liberty is a national non-profit organization.  Among other issues, IFL focuses on ensuring government accountability and transparency, especially when it comes to fiscal responsibility and executive operations.

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