2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 33 - Retirement of Government Personnel (§§ 761 — 830q) › § 781a - Employees Retirement System—Penalties

(a) Any head of an agency, public corporation, or municipality who fails to deduct his/her employees’ contributions and loan payments to the System, or fails to remit his/her employees’ contributions and loan payments to the System, or fails to make the appropriate employer contributions to the System, shall be so notified by the Administrator, by certified mail, return receipt requested, requiring him/her to remit such funds immediately.
(b) It shall be the obligation of said director to remit immediately to the System any funds due and owing or, if this is prevented by insufficiency of funds or because of discrepancies in the amount claimed, the director shall, within 15 days of the official notice by the Administrator, provide a sworn statement as to the facts which prevent remittance of the funds.
(c) In the event that the director is unable to remit funds owing to insufficiency of resources, he shall so notify the Office of Management and Budget and the Treasury Commissions of the Senate and House of Representatives, so that they may give priority to resolution of the insufficiency.
(d) In the event that the director does not remit the funds due to a discrepancy as to the amount owing, he should so notify the Commission to Resolve Controversies Over Payments and Debts between Government Agencies created by §§ 1751 et seq. of this title. The investigations which may be carried out according to said sections shall not have the effect of interrupting the terms set forth in § 782 of this title.
(e) If the director fails to meet the certification and notice requirement imposed by this section, he/she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of six (6) months or by a fine of five thousand dollars ($5,000) or both, at the discretion of the court. Such fine shall be paid from his/her own pocket.
(f) In the event that the director of an agency, public corporation or municipality knowingly, willfully, and without just cause fails to remit the funds owed to the System after he/she has been notified by the Administrator, he/she shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be punished by imprisonment for a fixed term of six (6) years or a fine of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or both, at the discretion of the court. Such fine shall be paid from his/her own pocket.
(g) Any debt payable by a municipality on account of individual or employer contributions, triennial increases, medication bonus, summer bonus, Christmas bonus, the two thousand dollar ($2,000) contribution legislated under Act No. 3-2013, and any other benefit legislated in favor of a pensioner, as well as any deduction from employees’ salaries for the payment of loans, payment plans of participants or employers or any municipal debt that has been in arrears for over thirty (30) days, shall have priority over any other outstanding debt of the municipality or municipal entity having participants in the Retirement System. If the municipality or municipal entity fails to remit to the Retirement System the aforementioned funds and amounts owed within thirty (30) days following the withholding thereof, the Administrator shall issue a certificate of debt to the CRIM, which shall immediately remit a payment in the amounts owed to the System following the same payment schedule used to remit payments to municipalities, that is, on or before the fifteenth (15) day of each month. In addition, before the CRIM makes any payment in advance to a municipality, such municipality shall request and obtain from the System a certificate stating that the obligations of the municipality to the Retirement System are up to date. The certificate of debt issued to the CRIM shall include the payment of interests at a rate to be determined by the Board for the return that such money would have realized, should it had been promptly received and invested by the System. Such debt may not be cancelled by the Administrator or the Board of the System.
(h) Any debt payable by an employer on account of individual or employer contributions, triennial increases, medication bonus, summer bonus, Christmas bonus, two thousand dollar ($2,000) contribution legislated under Act No. 3-2013, and any other benefit legislated in favor of a pensioner, as well as any deduction from employees’ salaries for the payment of loans, payment plans of participants or employers or any other obligations to the Retirement System that has been in arrears for over thirty (30) days, shall have priority over any other outstanding debt of an agency, public corporation, or entity having participants in the Retirement System. If an agency, public corporation, or any entity having participants in the Retirement System fails to remit to the Retirement System the employer or individual contributions withheld from the Retirement System participants within thirty (30) days following the withholding thereof, the Administrator shall issue a certificate of debt to the Secretary of the Treasury and immediately remit a payment in the amount owed to the System. The certificate of debt issued to the Department of the Treasury shall include the payment of interests at a rate to be determined by the Board for the return that such money would have realized, should it had been promptly received and invested by the System. Such debt may not be cancelled by the Administrator or the Board of the System.
Furthermore, the Retirement System may deduct the aforementioned amounts from the payments made by the System to the Department of the Treasury for the difference between employer and individual contributions and the income it receives from the payment of pensions and benefits it makes to such Department.
—May 15, 1951, No. 447, p. 1228, added as § 21A on Feb. 16, 1990, No. 1, § 16; renumbered as § 4-109 on Sept. 24, 1999, No. 305, § 36; July 6, 2011, No. 116, § 8, retroactive to July 1, 2011; June 25, 2013, No. 32, § 1.
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