2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 33 - Retirement of Government Personnel (§§ 761 — 830q) › § 777 - Employees Retirement System—Powers and duties of the Administrator

The Administrator shall direct and supervise all the administrative and technical activities of the System; designate a person who, under his/her immediate direction, shall be both in charge of and responsible for the proper operation of the System; adopt the necessary measures to recruit the personnel for the administration and the Board of Trustees of the System, in accordance with §§ 1461 et seq. of this title, known as the “Public Service Human Resources Administration Act”, for individual administrators; and may contract the services of specialized technicians, all to ensure that the provisions of this §§ 761 et seq. of this title are enforced.
The Administrator shall also have the following powers and duties:
(1) To establish an office for the system, and, under the supervision of the Secretary of the Treasury, make provision for the installation of a complete and adequate accounting and record system.
(2) With the advice of an actuary, to adopt all the necessary actuarial guides for the operation of the system; and compile the necessary statistical data to make periodical actuarial valuations and surveys of the operations of the system.
(3) To attend all the meetings of the Board and execute all the resolutions entrusted to him thereby.
(4) To certify to the Secretary of the Treasury, the payments required to be made according to the provisions of §§ 761 et seq. of this title.
(5) To remit or deposit in the name of the Secretary of the Treasury, and to render accounts of, according to the law and regulations in force, all the moneys received belonging to the system.
(6) To prepare regulations for the approval of the Board.
(7) To make recommendations to the Board for the investment of the funds of the system; make the investments of the system; act as custodian of the securities owned by the system; provide adequate facilities for the preservation of said securities in a safe place, and keep said securities subject to the order of the Board; collect the capital and interest of all the securities owned by the system as they become due and payable, and remit said amounts to the Secretary of the Treasury for their deposit in a special trust fund maintained in the name of the system, and submit the reports required by the Board.
(8) To make recommendations to the Board regarding changes and revisions of the system.
(9) To prepare the annual report and submit it to the Board for its review and approval.
(10) To issue a statement of account to any participant who may request it, showing the amount of his assessments accumulated in the system.
(11) To render to the Board any report it may request.
(a) After the claim is filed, the Administrator or his authorized representative shall proceed to make the pertinent investigations and shall decide according to the evidence.
(b) The claimant shall be notified of the Administrator’s decision by certified mail and the person or persons thus affected may, within a term of fifteen (15) days from the date of notice, submit a writ of reconsideration of the decision. The Administrator shall consider said petition within twenty (20) days of its filing. If a decision be reached in its reconsideration, the term to appeal shall start counting from the date the Administrator’s decision is notified, definitely resolving the writ of reconsideration. Should the Administrator flatly reject the petition or fail to take any action regarding the writ of reconsideration within twenty (20) days from its filing, the term to appeal shall start counting again from the date the refusal is notified or the twenty (20) days have elapsed, as the case may be.
(c) If the claimant does not request a reconsideration of the decision in such manner and within the term herein provided, or, if having requested the reconsideration, the Administrator upholds his decision in whole or in part, and so notifies him by registered mail, in either case, the decision shall be final.
In the adjudication of any claim under the provisions of this or any other retirement law whose administration is entrusted to him, unless otherwise provided, the Administrator shall abide by the following procedure:
(12) The Administrator and his authorized representatives shall be empowered to subpoena witnesses and require the presentment of documents and any other documentary or oral evidence; to administer oaths, to certify in connection with official acts, and to issue summonses.
(13) The Administrator shall be further empowered to establish, when he deems it pertinent, a pre- and post-retirement orientation program, and other services to participants who are to retire in the near future as well as to those already pensioned. Said programs may include, among other activities, the following: hold pre- and post-retirement orientation seminars; issue identification cards to the pensioners and arrange for discounts in their purchases or in other services facilities.
(14) As part of the Preretirement Orientation Program for participants, the Administrator shall encourage participation in community service, offer orientation regarding the types of volunteer work that participants may provide, the health benefits of such work, the social contribution participants would be making, and a list of community organizations where they can render community services, as established in the Register of Community Service Organizations attached to the Special Joint Committee on Legislative Donations of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico.
(15) The Administrator may intervene in handling the tutorship files in the cases of mentally-disabled participants or minors, who are beneficiaries to the sole effects of the payment of the annuities or benefits granted in the system. The Administrator may, likewise, designate as a tutor, any person already appointed as tutor of the disabled person, by virtue of the U.S. Social Security Act, the Workmen’s Accident Compensation Act, §§ 1 et seq. of Title 11, or the Automobile Accident Compensation Act, §§ 2051 et seq. of Title 9. The Administrator shall provide, by regulations, the standards for appointment, duties and obligations, periodic inspection, change, or removal of the designated tutors.
History —May 15, 1951, No. 447, p. 1298, § 17; June 28, 1961, No. 132, p. 283, § 1; Dec. 10, 1975, No. 14, p. 972, § 4; June 12, 1978, No. 44, p. 143, § 1; May 12, 1980, No. 34, p. 93; May 23, 1984, No. 17, p. 37; May 21, 1992, No. 10, § 9; renumbered as § 4-103 on Sept. 24, 1999, No. 305, § 32; Aug. 31, 2000, No. 261, § 1; Feb. 29, 2012, No. 45, § 1, eff. 180 days after Feb. 29, 2012.