2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-FOUR - Health and Sanitation (§§ 1 — 15010) › PART IV - Vital Statistics Registry (§§ 1041 — 1325) › Chapter 83 - General and Local Registries (§§ 1071 — 1074) › § 1073 - Registrar for every district; compensation; appointment; removal

(a) In each primary registry district there shall be at least one registrar, who shall be appointed by the Secretary of Health in accordance with the provisions of Act No. 345, approved May 12, 1947. The minimum salary in the compensation schedule which the Director of Personnel may establish for the classes to which the positions of registrars are allocated, shall be the initial salary for each one of such employees, who shall receive, besides the regular salary accruing to them as provided by Act No. 282, approved May 15, 1948, an extra compensation of ten cents (10¢) for each birth, death, marriage and stillbirth recorded by them in their respective registries.
(b) On and after the date on which this act takes effect, those persons who on the day before the effectiveness of this act may be holding positions as registrars shall be considered regular employees and shall be classified within the Competitive Service, provided they have held such positions for a period of not less than six (6) months, and provided the Secretary of Health certifies that they have rendered satisfactory services during said period. Those registrars who on the date this act takes effect have not completed six (6) months of service shall become regular employees upon completion of a period of six (6) months of satisfactory services during the effectiveness of this act, if so certified by the Director of Personnel to the Secretary of Health. Registrars as to whom the Secretary of Health does not forward to the Director of Personnel a satisfactory-service certificate shall be considered provisional employees, pending the establishment of the lists of eligibles for the corresponding classes and the certification of ternaries of candidates therefrom.
(c) The Secretary of Health may appoint, in the same manner as registrars are appointed, such additional employees as may be required to substitute for the registrars in cases of extended absence due to illness or disability, or during the regular vacations to which they may be entitled. The Secretary shall also designate an employee from the public health unit where the registry is located to substitute for the registrar in case of sudden illness or justified absence. The Secretary shall also appoint employees to positions allocated to any other class, as may be necessary in registries where the volume of work may so require.
(d) The Secretary may establish sub-registries or subordinate registries within any municipality for the registration of births, deaths, marriages or stillbirths occurring in the sections of the municipal district assigned to them, and for issuing permits for the burial or for the removal and burial of corpses, as the case may be.
(e) Whenever possible, the Secretary shall designate an employee of a public health sub-unit to perform the work of deputy registrar, and said employee shall receive no additional compensation while serving as such deputy registrar. In case it is impossible, or, in the judgment of the Secretary, inadvisable, to designate an employee of the sub-unit, the Secretary may designate a capable person to fulfill the duties of deputy registrar, and the person thus appointed shall receive his emoluments on the following basis: for each birth, death, stillbirth, or marriage certificate he registers in his respective registry, fifty cents (50¢), and for each burial permit or removal-and-burial permit he issues, fifty cents (50¢). Deputy registrars or subordinate registries shall forward the originals of the certificates registered by them to the principal registrar of the district, in the form and on the dates the Secretary of Health may determine. Each sub-registry or subordinate registry shall be subject to the supervision and direction of the local registry.
(f) The Secretary of Health may remove an employee in charge of a sub-registry or subordinate registry when in his judgment such employee is negligent in the performance of his duties or does not discharge same with due efficiency, according to the provisions of this part.
(g) No undertaker, no embalmer, nor any other person interested in undertaking or embalming services may be appointed to a position in the vital statistics registries of Puerto Rico.
(h) The books of the old civil registries, placed under the jurisdiction and authority of the Secretary of Health, shall be filed in the places that the Secretary deems suitable for their best preservation, and shall be under the immediate custody of the registrars of the Registry, who are hereby authorized to issue certified copies of all certificates appearing therein, upon payment by the petitioner of a fee in Internal Revenue stamps, for each certified copy of [a] birth, death or marriage certificate. The fee to be paid for said certified copies shall be determined by regulations that shall be adopted by the Secretary of Health under the provisions of § 1071a of this title. The amounts collected from the payment of the fees shall be covered into a special fund in the Department of the Treasury and shall be destined for the budget of the Registry of Vital Statistics for its operating expenses. The persons in charge of the Registry can issue certified copies of its records to the applicants concerned who are over eighteen (18) years of age, and to minors sixteen (16) years of age or older with the written authorization of the parents or legal guardian; and to issue a record related to him/herself and/or his/her son or daughter, to any minor who, in turn, is the father or mother of a minor.
History —Apr. 22, 1931, No. 24, p. 228, § 5; July 18, 1935, No. 28, p. 162, § 1; May 12, 1943, No. 99, p. 266, § 1; May 10, 1947, No. 297, p. 496, § 4; May 12, 1950, No. 404, p. 960, § 1; Apr. 28, 1954, No. 24, p. 152; Apr. 19, 1983, No. 22, p. 39; Aug. 9, 1998, No. 220, § 2; Jan. 5, 1999, No. 1, § 1.