From Caribbean Business

Entities, instrumentalities covered hold 1,159 accounts with a combined $10.2 billion

SAN JUAN – Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board released Friday night a report regarding the bank and investment account balances of 164 government entities and instrumentalities.

The report is one element of a forensic investigation into the liquidity of the commonwealth to “assess the sources and uses of public funds, and legal restrictions on these funds to protect the ability of the Government to provide public services to the people of Puerto Rico,” the board said in its release.

Last year, the panel hired Kobre & Kim to do an independent investigation into the causes of the public debt.

The, report prepared by Duff & Phelps LLC, “Title III Bank Accounts,” details the total cash balances held as of June 30, 2018. The board said it will continue its investigation to determine “restrictions on those resources and the necessary working capital of the government entities and instrumentalities,” and ask the entities and instrumentalities to provide updated data.

After reconciling the financial information provided by the Government of Puerto Rico and the financial institutions holding the funds, the report determined that the entities and instrumentalities covered in the report hold 1,159 accounts with a total value of about $10.2 billion. The entities and instrumentalities self-reported the cash balances as restricted and unrestricted, “a classification that is under continuing analysis, the board said, adding that the report “does not purport to determine whether any of such funds are restricted or contended to be restricted in litigation.”

The report is the “result of an extensive and complex effort for which we collaborated with the Government to the extent possible,” said Natalie Jaresko, the board’s executive director, adding that the panel appreciates the “ongoing support of the Government of Puerto Rico in this effort to gain a clearer and more complete picture of the Commonwealth’s financial position.”

For more on this story go to; https://caribbeanbusiness.com/fiscal-board-releases-report-detailing-puerto-ricos-bank-balances/