2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-SEVEN - Public Service (§§ 1 — 2641) › PART V - Regulation of Public Services (§§ 2601 — 2641) › Chapter 91 - Public-Private Partnerships Act (§§ 2601 — 2623) › § 2601 - Definitions

The following words or terms shall have the meanings stated hereinbelow, except when the context clearly indicates otherwise, and the words used in the singular form shall include the plural form and vice versa:
(a) Federal agency.— Any of the departments of the Executive Branch of the Government of the United States of America, or any department, corporation, agency or instrumentality created or which may be created, designated or established by the United States of America.
(b) Public-private partnership or partnership.— Any agreement, including an agreement to carry out a small scale project, between a government entity and one (1) or more persons, subject to the public policy set forth in this chapter, the terms of which are provided under a partnership contract, to delegate operations, functions, services, or responsibilities of any government entity, as well as to design, develop, finance, maintain, or operate one or more facilities, or any combination thereof.
(c) Authority.— The Public-Private Partnership Authority created by this chapter.
(d) GDB or Bank.— The Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico.
(e) Partnership Committee.— A committee designated by the Authority to evaluate and select qualified persons and the proponents of a partnership and to establish and negotiate the terms and conditions it deems appropriate for the corresponding partnership contract.
(f) Standing Committee on Small Scale Partnerships.— A committee established under this chapter to evaluate small scale projects, qualify persons that may participate in the process, select the proponents of a partnership, and establish the terms and conditions it may deem appropriate for the corresponding partnership contract.
(g) Conflict of interests.— Means any situation in which the personal or financial interest of the public official or persons related to such public official is or could reasonably be in contravention of the public interest.
(h) Partnership contract.— The contract executed by the selected proponent and the partnering government entity to establish a partnership, which may include, but shall not be limited to, a contract to delegate a function, administer or render one or more services, or conduct the design, building, financing, maintenance, or operation of one or more facilities that are in themselves or are closely related to priority projects as established in § 2602 of this title. A partnership contract may be, without it being understood as a limitation, any modality of the following kinds of contract: design/build, design/build/operate, design/build/finance/operate, design/build/transfer/operate, design/build/operate/transfer, turnkey contract, long-term lease contract, surface right contract, administrative grant contract, joint venture contract, long-term administration and operation contract, and any other kind of contract that separates or combines the design, building, financing, operation or maintenance phases of the priority projects, as established in § 2602 of this title. The obligations arising from these contracts shall be binding insofar as these do not disrupt the law, morality, or public order.
(i) Contractor.— The person who executes a partnership contract with a partnering government entity or the successor thereof.
(j) Government entity.— Any department, agency, board, commission, body, bureau, office, municipal entity, public corporation or instrumentality of the Executive Branch, as well as of the Judicial Branch and the Legislative Branch of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, whether existing or to be created in the future.
(k) Partnering government entity.— The government entity with direct inherence on the kind(s) of function(s), service(s) or facility(ies) that shall be under the partnership contract, which is or shall be a party in the partnership contract.
(l) Municipal entity.— Any municipality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as any municipal corporation or municipal consortium.
(m) Function(s).— Any present or future responsibility or operation of a government entity, expressly delegated to the same by means of either its Organic Act or the pertinent special laws, that is closely related to priority projects, as established in § 2602 of this title.
(n) Facility(ies).— Any property, capital work or facility of public use, whether real or personal, whether existing or to be developed in the future, including, but not limited to, aqueduct and sewer systems, including all plants, reservoirs, and systems to store, supply, treat, and distribute water, systems to treat, collect, and eliminate rainwater and sewer water, improvements financed under the provisions of the Federal Clean Water Act and the Federal Potable Water Act, or any other similar or related federal legislation or regulation; systems to collect, transport, manage, and eliminate non-hazardous and hazardous solid waste; systems to recover resources; systems to produce, transmit or distribute electric power; freeways, highways, pedestrian walkways, parking facilities; airports, convention centers, bridges, sea or air ports, tunnels; transportation systems, including mass transportation systems; communications systems, including telephones, information and technology systems; industrial facilities; public housing; correctional institutions; and any kind of facilities used as tourist, healthcare or agricultural-industrial infrastructure or any other similar facilities.
(o) Public interest.— Any government action directed to protecting and benefiting citizens at large, whereby essential goods and services are provided for the welfare of the population.
(p) Board.— The Board of Directors of the Authority.
(q) Person.— Any natural or juridical person organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States of America, any of its states or territories, or of any foreign country, any federal agency, or any combination of the above. The term shall include any department, agency, municipal entity, government instrumentality, individual, firm, partnership, stock company, association, public or private corporation, or cooperative union or nonprofit entity duly constituted and authorized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the United States of America or any of its states or territories.
(r) Property.— Any property, whether real or personal, whether tangible or intangible, existing at present or to exist in the future.
(s) Proponent.— Any person or its affiliated or related entities who has submitted a proposal to enter into a partnership with a government entity.
(t) Small scale project.— A project submitted by a government entity or a proponent for the development of a facility, or to provide a service or function, whose estimated cost, at the time the proposal is submitted to the Authority, including a reasonable item for possible change orders in the execution of the project, does not exceed fifty-five million dollars ($55,000,000).
(u) Priority projects.— An initiative developed by the Government that holds primacy, whose purpose is the performance and execution of a work vested in high public interest.
(v) Service(s).— Any service rendered or to be rendered by a government entity directed to safeguarding the interests or meeting the needs of citizens under the provisions of either its organic act or other special laws, that are in themselves or are closely related with priority projects, as established in § 2602 of this title.
(w) Family unit.— Includes the spouse of the public official or employee, as well as his/her dependent children, or those persons who dwell in such public official’s legal residence, or whose financial affairs are under the control, whether de jure or de facto, of the public official or employee.
(x) Small scale project subdivision.— A division of the Authority responsible for coordinating the process of receiving, processing, and evaluating proposals for small scale projects.
History —June 8, 2009, No. 29, § 2; Dec. 19, 2014, No. 237, § 1.