2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 39 - Official Publications and Documents (§§ 941 — 957) › § 957 - Printing of documents and publications of agencies

(a) It is herein provided and established as public policy that all agencies or dependencies of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, including public corporations and municipalities, shall make use of the services of native Puerto Rican printing services and publishing houses, and preferably of the printing shops of the agencies and public dependencies, as provided hereinafter in this section for the printing, editing and press runs of any forms, documents or publications.
(b) All agencies or dependencies of the Commonwealth Government, including public corporations, shall preferentially make use of the printing offices of Government agencies or dependencies for the publication and printing of their written materials. If an agency does not have its own printing shop or the printing shop itself does not have the capacity to produce the required work, the agency or dependency shall preferentially request quotes and proposals from the printing shops of other agencies or dependencies.
(c) For purposes of enforcing the provisions of this section, all the agencies or dependencies of the Commonwealth Government, including the public corporations that operate their own printing shops are hereby authorized and empowered to offer quotes for printing services according to their capacity to carry out work for other agencies or dependencies of the Commonwealth Government and for the municipalities. Any provision of law that prohibits the printing works of a public agency or dependency from quoting and competing to obtain contracts for printing materials for another agency, dependency or municipality is hereby repealed by this section.
(d) The agencies and dependencies of the Government, including the public corporations that operate their own printing shops are hereby authorized and empowered to enter into consortiums to create and develop joint or shared printing shops, coordinate and distribute functions among themselves and to specialize their respective printing shops for purposes of optimizing the division of tasks among the respective printing shops.
(e) The respective agencies or dependencies that require printing services shall issue a notice to the Office of Management and Budget prior to requesting quotes and proposals from the printing offices of the other agencies and dependencies. Should a contract of one of these printing shops be obtained, the contract shall provide that once the work has been satisfactorily completed, the payment between agencies shall be made within a term of not more than thirty (30) days; in the case of the agencies of the Central Government, the contract may provide that the payment shall be made directly by the agency, or by budgetary transfer by the Office of Management and Budget. The terms of the contracting of public printing shops shall include conditions and deadlines for the satisfactory completion of the work; any contracting agency or dependency may reject any quote or offer from a printing shop that shows a history of noncompliance with said conditions and deadlines with any contractor.
(f) In cases in which the printing shops of the government entities are not available for required printing work because of financial or technical reasons, the agencies and dependencies, including public corporations and municipalities shall preferably use the printing and editorial services of native Puerto Rican enterprises.
(g) Exceptions: —
(1) In the case of books, including text books, to be published by or with the sponsorship of the Department of Education or the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, use shall be primarily made of the printing and editorial services of native Puerto Rican enterprises.
(2) This section shall not apply to the promotional publications of the Tourism Company of Puerto Rico or the Industrial Development Company directed to foreign markets.
(3) For documents or prints requiring special security mechanisms against falsification or reproduction, quotes may be requested directly from specialized printing shops.
(h) The Office of Management and Budget and the Comptroller of Puerto Rico, in their evaluations of budgets and expenses of the public agencies and dependencies shall give special attention to avoiding the incorporation into the specifications contained in advertisements, petitions, orders and proposals for printing works of onerous requirements that have the effect of excluding the public printing shops or native enterprises from competition.
(i) The Secretary of Education, the Management and Budget Director, the General Services Administrator, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Executive Director of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture shall jointly approve the corresponding regulations for the implementation of this section.
(j) The officers indicated in subsection (i) of this section shall constitute a committee that shall evaluate the operational and financial feasibility of alternatives for the eventual consolidation of the printing services of the public sector and of public policy for the printing of books and documents, to be submitted to the Legislature in a report with its findings, conclusions and recommendations in this regard, no later than one (1) year after this act takes effect.
History —Feb. 25, 2008, No. 17, §§ 1—9, 12, eff. 120 days after Feb. 25, 2008.