Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz said on Wednesday that Family secretary Suzanne Roig lied and gave testimony with multiple inconsistencies, after he questioned her intensely in a public hearing before the Senate Committee on Family, Women, Senior Citizens and Population with Functional Diversity and Disabilities. Roig began testifying at 1:00 PM. The hearing concerns a competitive process by invitation awarded to NOLA Education for educational services through the Star Academy program.
Rivera Schatz said the inconsistencies will come to light once the full file behind the award is delivered to the Legislature. He compared the NOLA case to the failed Power Expectations contract for temporary power generation, saying 'nobody knew anything' and that people are 'hiding information.' He told reporters that those who think Puerto Rico’s people do not notice are lying, and that once the file arrives the public can reach its own conclusions.
The committee gave Roig until Thursday, October 15, to submit the file; she answered, 'We would be ready.' Roig was accompanied by Carlos Rivera Justiniano, La Fortaleza’s adviser on legislative affairs, and Nicole Báez Ortiz, who traveled with her to Louisiana in December 2025 to learn about Star Academy and is now director of the Legal Division of the Family’s Socioeconomic Development Administration (ADSEF).
Committee chair Wanda Soto said the testimonies of Roig and former ADSEF head Blanca Medina Díaz, who spoke in the morning, are contradictory, telling El Nuevo Día she would dare say they are 'two totally different versions.'