2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 13 - Department of Treasury (§§ 221 — 286) › § 283k - Other miscellaneous provisions

(a) The Secretary may declare uncollectible, cancel and liquidate any existing debt of the Commonwealth, including surcharges, interest and penalties, pursuant to the provisions of the regulation he/she is authorized to adopt in §§ 283—283p of this title.
(b) In drafting said regulations the Secretary shall be guided, among others, by the following factors:
(1) Time of the matured debt, which shall not be less than five (5) years,
(2) insolvency or impossibility on the part of the debtor or his heirs, to pay said debt and the reasonable possibility of collecting it,
(3) efforts exercised by debtor in his effort to pay the debt.
(c) The Secretary of Justice may excuse any public officer or employee of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or any of its corporate entities from the payment or reimbursement of funds, money or public property which may be in his custody and which might be lost or disappear or where the property may sustain undue deterioration for any fortuitous cause or circumstance against his will, after it is shown that there was no fault, blame or negligence on the part of said officer or employee.
(d) In the discharge of the duties imposed by law on his Department, the Secretary may promulgate the internal rules necessary to dispose administratively of differences of less than ten dollars ($10) appearing from the preauditing, examination, and accounting of revenues and disbursements of public funds.
(e) It shall be the obligation of the dependencies themselves, including the Department of the Treasury as such, to activate the collection of all the debts of natural and juridical persons registered in their books or records and to adopt the measures authorized by the law to collect said debts as soon as possible. The dependencies are authorized to settle and administratively dispose of claims for the payment of outstanding debts to the Commonwealth, provided the amount of the debt does not exceed the sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000) and upon the prior approval of the Secretary of the Treasury who is hereby authorized to adopt rules and forms for the administrative processing of such claims. The cases requiring judicial action shall be referred by the dependencies to the Secretary of the Justice of Puerto Rico for him/her to proceed as determined by the law.
(f) Whenever any collector or officer authorized by law to collect public funds for the dependencies or legislative bodies, or any paymaster or officer authorized by law to disburse public funds belonging to the dependencies, fails to render his/her accounts or to deliver in the manner and on the date prescribed by the regulations promulgated pursuant to §§ 283n—283p of this title, any amount which may remain in his/her possession, it shall be the duty of the Secretary or the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives, after due notice, to submit the duly certified accounts of the remiss officer to the Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico who shall immediately proceed against said officer in the manner determined by law.
(g) The Secretary may adjust the accounts appearing in his books to write off any errors that may have existed therein for more than twelve (12) years, or after three (3) audits by the Controller of Puerto Rico, whichever occurs first. Before proceeding to make said adjustments, the Secretary shall ascertain that these are errors in the Government accounting records and books, and that there has been neither fraud nor misappropriation of funds involved, nor any indication thereof, and that all reasonable efforts have been made to correct such errors without success. The Secretary shall file a report certifying the grounds on which his decision is based.
(h) The Secretary shall review the net income estimates of the General Fund on a quarterly basis through any fiscal year and shall publish said review on the webpage of the Department of the Treasury within a term that shall not exceed thirty (30) days following the close of the quarter. Said review shall project future revenues based on actual revenues and include any revision of the assumptions used to prepare the net income estimates of the General Fund.
History —July 23, 1974, No. 230, Part 2, p. 183, § 12; June 16, 1975, No. 37, p. 91; May 27, 1976, No. 61, p. 175, §§ 4, 6; June 22, 1977, No. 92, p. 206; June 11, 2004, No. 140, § 9; Mar. 8, 2007, No. 21, § 1, eff. 90 days after Mar. 8, 2007; Dec. 8, 2015, No. 208, § 302b.