2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 65A - Puerto Rico Government Ethics Act of 2011 (§§ 1854 — 1860b) › Subchapter II - Office of Government Ethics (§§ 1855 — 1855d) › § 1855d - Government Ethics Committees

(a) Composition and swearing-in.—
Every agency shall create a Government Ethics Committee composed of the following public servants:
(1) The head of the Office of Human Resources;
(2) the head of the Office of Finances, and
(3) three (3) public servants in the career service, selected by the vote of the personnel of the agency. Two (2) of the members shall be appointed for a term of three (3) years, and the third member, for a term of five (5) years.
During special circumstances, the Executive Director may authorize a modification of the composition of the Ethics Committees.
The appointing authority shall inform the Executive Director the names of the members of its Committee. Should any change or vacancy arise in the Committee, the Executive Director must be informed within thirty (30) days as of the date in which any change was made.
Agencies composed of different regions shall have one Committee for each one of the regions.
The members of the Committee shall be sworn in by the Office and responsible for their decisions as a whole. Once it is constituted, a Liaison Officer shall be chosen from among them.
In the event that one of the members, who is a career employee, is removed from the Committee, the established procedure shall be followed.
(b) Duties and functions.—
The Committees shall have, among others, the following duties and functions:
(1) To keep the appointing authority informed of the work carried out by the Committee.
(2) To follow up and verify compliance with the corrective measures established to address findings included in any report of the internal and external audits conducted in their agencies.
(3) To verify the establishment of and compliance with administrative controls to prevent and discourage their personnel from incurring in violations of this chapter, the regulations approved thereunder and any other law directed to fight corruption in the public service.
(4) To coordinate their activities in accordance with the norms established by the Office.
(5) To keep and update the records of the works conducted every fiscal year and have such records available for review by the staff designated by the Office.
(6) To carry out any other function that, in the judgment of the Executive Director, is necessary to achieve the objective of preventing government corruption.
(c) Sanctions and penalties.— The Executive Director may impose administrative sanctions on the members of the Committee if they fail to comply with any of the duties and functions established in this chapter, after following an administrative procedure. Any member of the Committee, who intentionally destroys, alters, loses or conceals any kind of information, document, file or record, including those in electronic format, shall be guilty of a felony. Any person convicted of this offense shall be punished by imprisonment for a fixed term of one (1) year and a fine of two thousand dollars ($2,000). The court may also impose community service.
History —Jan. 3, 2012, No. 1, § 2.5.