2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 32 - Act for the Improvement of Family Assistance and for the Support of the Elderly (§§ 711 — 748) › § 717 - Administrator—Faculties and powers

(1) The Administrator shall have the responsibilities, faculties and powers that are necessary and convenient to execute the provisions of this chapter, including, without it being construed as a limitation, the following:
(a) Perform all necessary administrative and judicial efforts and actions to ensure compliance with the purposes of this chapter.
(b) Enter into agreements and administratively coordinate with the pertinent government agencies, departments or bodies, and the Judicial Branch, as well as with other public or private institutions, the adoption of measures addressed to achieve compliance of the public policy established in this chapter, as well as its purposes and objectives.
(c) Identify and locate adult descendants or any other persons who are legally bound to provide support to the elderly in all cases that it is necessary, or when requested to do so in order to comply with the purposes of this chapter, pursuant to the provisions of § 735a of this title.
(d) Render the services for the support of the elderly authorized by this chapter to any private person who requests the same in judicial and administrative actions to establish, fix, level, modify and enforce compliance of the obligation to provide elderly support of any person so bound by law. It is specifically included in this category of persons, those natural or juridical persons who are in charge of the daily care of the elderly-obligee: The legal representation offered by the Administrator pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall always be in the best interest of the elderly person.
(e) Designate assistant prosecutors to represent the Program in elderly support procedures and before other agencies, government bodies and the courts of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Administrator may request to the Secretary of Justice to appoint these lawyers as special prosecutors so that, as part of their functions, they may act in procedures of a criminal nature for violations of the laws, regulations or orders administered by the Program. This power may be delegated by the Secretary of Justice on the Deputy Secretary, the assistant secretaries and on the Chief of the Investigations and Criminal Procedure Division of the Department of Justice.
(f) Shall disclose the elderly support services authorized by this chapter, and the criteria, eligibility requirements and the costs thereof, if any.
(g) Establish a broad and vigorous educational program to promote compliance of the moral and legal obligation of the descendants and persons responsible for providing support for the elderly; coordinate and promote that persons and educational, charitable, civic, religious, social, recreational, professional, occupational, unions, commercial, industrial and agricultural entities foster the public policy of responsibility for the support of elderly persons, and request the cooperation of all profit or non-profit public and private mass communications media to contribute to the educational process of complying with the responsibility of supporting [the] elderly, in order to achieve the strengthening of the fundamental institution of society, the family. To achieve these purposes, the Program is empowered to organize all types of activities and to use all personal, group or mass communication media including the production and placing of advertisements in radio, press, television and other communications media, including the Internet. The Program shall publish the availability of the elderly support services at least once a year, including information on costs and locations where such services may be requested.
(h) Request, receive and accept funds and donations to render the services authorized by this chapter and execute contracts and any other instrument that is necessary or convenient to exercise any of his/her powers, as well as to contract the necessary technical services to conduct investigations, processing of cases and data, collecting of elderly support payments, and any other action needed to comply with the purposes of this chapter, with individuals, groups, corporations, any federal agency, the Government of the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its agencies or political subdivisions.
(i) Perform research and studies to determine and evaluate the nature of the services to be rendered.
(j) Adopt, with the approval of the Secretary, the regulations and procedures needed to execute the purposes of this chapter. The Administrator is expressly empowered to determine through regulations, those rules and norms needed to implement the administrative mediation procedure and those services for which he/she shall require the payment of a reasonable sum and the reimbursement of the expenses incurred to render services, as well as to determine who shall be required to pay for them, the criteria for it, the amount to be paid, and the method of payment.
(k) Establish, with the approval of the Secretary, the internal organization of the Program and the mechanism for coordination and programmatic and operational integration needed for a comprehensive treatment of the family, pursuant to the functions and duties of the Department.
(l) To initiate the corresponding legal actions to challenge transactions or obtain a remedy in the best interest of the obligee pursuant to the provisions of §§ 401 et seq. of Title 19, when there is prima facie evidence that an obligor against whom an elderly support judicial action is pending, transfers a property or income to evade the current or future payment of elderly support.
(2) The Administrator or the person designated by him/her shall have authority to disclose the financial information or of another kind in public or private entities with the purpose of enforcing a support obligation for the elderly.
History —Aug. 12, 2000, No. 168, § 9, renumbered as § 8 and amended on Aug. 17, 2002, No. 193, § 9.