Scorecard Methodology & Governance

CivicaPR scorecards are built only from public records. Every indicator is a real, traceable figure; where we compute a derived index, the formula is shown in plain language and is pure arithmetic — never a subjective grade or a model-generated number. When the data cannot support an honest measure, we say so and show facts instead of inventing a score.

New here? Start with About CivicaPR for what the platform is, where the data comes from, and how we use AI responsibly.

Contractor (entity) scorecards

From U.S. federal contract awards (USASpending.gov):

• Total public funding — sum of award amounts received.
• Contracts — number of awards on record.
• Funding agencies — distinct federal agencies that awarded contracts.
• Largest award share — the biggest single award as a percent of total funding.
• Award Concentration Index (0–100) — the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index of award amounts: the sum of each award's squared share of total funding, times 100. A value of 100 means a single award; lower values mean funding is spread across more awards. This is a neutral measure of concentration, not a judgment of conduct.

Municipality scorecards

From the U.S. Census (ACS 5-Year) and FEMA OpenFEMA Public Assistance:

• Population, poverty rate, median household income — Puerto Rico Community Survey (Census ACS 5-year, state 72). Poverty is the S1701 percent, not a headcount divided by total population.
• Federal recovery $ — FEMA Public Assistance federal share obligated.
• Recovery $ per resident — federal recovery funding divided by population.

Municipalities carry no 0–100 index. Federal recovery funding spans multiple disasters and administrations; it reflects disaster impact, not the performance of any town or official.

Officials: why there is no score

CivicaPR deliberately does not assign government officials a composite accountability score. The public data cannot support an honest per-official metric: federal contracts link to the companies that receive them (not to officials), FEMA recovery funding is municipal and spans administrations, and federal campaign-finance disclosure exists only for Puerto Rico's sole federal office, the Resident Commissioner. Local OCE filings cover additional officials, but only for 2011–2018 — the portal froze on 2019-01-30. Rather than manufacture a number, we publish cited facts — background, party, verified accounts, and, where a filing exists, the campaign-finance money trail — each linked to its source.

What we show instead: where an FEC filing exists, official profiles and the scorecards roster carry a factual disclosure summary — filing cycles on record, latest-cycle receipts, disbursements and cash on hand, PAC dollars as a percentage of itemized contributions, disbursements as a percentage of receipts, and the date the public record is current through. Each figure is arithmetic over the filings themselves, linked to the FEC source. Officials with no federal filing show a dash, never a zero — absence of disclosure is not the same as disclosing nothing. Where an OCE mapping has been confirmed by hand, the same profile also carries 2011–2018 Puerto Rico donations, labeled as such and never mixed into the FEC totals. Surname-overlap names are left unmapped.

Integrity rules we will not break

• Public products read only public records. Person-level contact data never appears on a public page.
• Every claim about a named person or entity is cited or dropped — no uncited prose, no fabricated figures.
• AI summarizes and structures cited sources; it never invents facts, names, dates, or scores.
• CivicaPR is a transparency platform. It does not and will not build surveillance, biometric, facial-recognition, location/device-tracking, or citizen-profiling features.
• CivicaPR is independent and not affiliated with any government entity.

Data sources

Every figure on CivicaPR traces to one of these public, authoritative sources:

• USASpending.gov — federal contract awards (contractors, agencies, obligations). Recipient Unique Entity Identifiers are stored as filed. SAM.gov exclusion flags join on UEI only — never on contractor name.
• U.S. Census Bureau (Puerto Rico Community Survey) — municipal population, poverty, income, age, unemployment, education, and housing. Same ACS 5-year API, state 72. Not a municipio join to College Scorecard cities.
• FEMA OpenFEMA — disaster declarations and Public Assistance recovery funding.
• OpenFEC — federal campaign-finance disclosure (the Resident Commissioner). Committee totals and the largest-gift snapshot stay separate from itemized Schedule A (employer / occupation). Itemized individual gifts are not the complete individual total — unitemized contributions exist. Upcoming reporting dates are national quarterly/monthly deadlines (location FEC), not a Puerto Rico calendar. FEC contributor lists may not be used for commercial solicitation.
• Oficina del Contralor Electoral — Puerto Rico campaign-finance donations, 2011–2018 only (portal frozen 2019-01-30). Shown solely for officials with a confirmed candidato mapping.
• Congress.gov — federal bills sponsored or cosponsored by Puerto Rico's Resident Commissioner. Shown only for officials with a confirmed bioguide mapping. Not the Puerto Rico Assembly record.
• GovInfo — U.S. public laws (PLAW), Federal Register notices (2025–), federal bill texts (2025–), and Congressional Record Daily granules (2025–) that mention Puerto Rico. A CREC mention is not a speech by the Resident Commissioner. Separate from OpenStates/SUTRA and from FEMA OpenFEMA. Titles link to govinfo.gov.
• Regulations.gov — EPA, FEMA, and FCC notices/rules/proposed rules that mention Puerto Rico. Read-only; CivicaPR does not post comments. Separate from GovInfo FR granules and from OpenFEMA.
• FBI Crime Data Explorer — UCR summarized offenses for Puerto Rico. One statewide ORI (SRS); not a municipio breakdown. SRS and NIBRS are stored as separate facts. United States comparison series are not ingested.
• College Scorecard — Title IV institutions in Puerto Rico (size, completion, debt, earnings). City is the Scorecard city, not a CivicaPR municipio join. Field-of-study data is a separate dataset and is not mixed in.
• OpenStates / Plural (public domain) — Puerto Rico legislation, sponsors, and action history, anchored to each measure's official SUTRA record at the Asamblea Legislativa de Puerto Rico.
• Wikidata — the authoritative layer for officials' verified facts and social accounts (never model-guessed).

Corrections & contact

Found an error or have a source to add? Email info@r21digital.com. See also our About page.