2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-FOUR - Health and Sanitation (§§ 1 — 15010) › PART I - Hospitals, Institutions, And Health Programs (§§ 1 — 343k) › Chapter 19A - Health Facilities and Services Administration (§§ 337-337m — 339c) › § 339c - Restructuring and refinancing of AFASS existing obligations

(a) The Health Facilities and Services Administration, hereinafter AFASS (Spanish acronym), is hereby authorized to negotiate and execute with the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico, hereinafter “the Bank,” the Public Financing Corporation, or any other private banking or financing institutions, those agreements or contracts needed to restructure and refinance its outstanding obligations after having received the appropriations corresponding to fiscal year 1997-1998, and financed all expenses related to any restructuring and refinancing transaction, whether by a bond issue or the sale of the restructured loan.
(b) AFASS may restructure and refinance its outstanding obligations referred to in subsection (a) of this section, including all expenses related to said restructuring and refinancing transaction and any deposits in reserve accounts as required, up to a principal amount of five hundred ninety-five million dollars ($595,000,000). The debt thus restructured and refinanced pursuant to this section shall be paid within a maximum term of twenty (20) years, at an annual interest rate that shall not exceed seven point twenty-five percent (7.25%).
(c) In the event a note, bond or other evidence indebtedness of AFASS which does not earn interest or constitutes a capital appreciation bond is used for purpose of applying the limit on principal established in subsection (b) of this section, the principal of the said debt shall be the initial amount of principal thereof as established in the document evidencing said debt or in the resolution authorizing the same.
(d) The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall honor the payment of principal and interest of AFASS obligations restructured and refinanced pursuant to this section. To these ends, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall include in the operating budgets of the Government the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, to be submitted annually to the Legislature of Puerto Rico by the Governor of Puerto Rico, the sum of fifty-six million, five hundred nineteen thousand, six hundred ninety-six dollars ($56,519,696) for the first five (5) fiscal years beginning with the 1998-1999 fiscal year. For the following fifteen (15) fiscal years, the amounts needed to meet the annual payment of principal and interest on the AFASS debt restructured and refinanced under subsection (b) of this section, shall be appropriated up to a maximum amount of fifty-seven million, seven hundred thirty-six thousand, seven hundred sixty-six dollars ($57,736,766) a year.
(e) On or before the dates for the payment of the principal and interest of the restructured and refinanced AFASS obligations, the Secretary of the Treasury shall deposit in a special account under the name of AFASS, in the Bank or any other banking or financing entity qualified to receive funds of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the amounts established in subsection (d) of this section.
(f) The appropriations provided in this section shall be used exclusively for the payment of the restructured and refinanced AFASS debts and for any other expense related to said restructuring and refinancing, as provided in subsection (b) of this section, and shall not be used for any other purposes, nor be subject to claims by other AFASS creditors.
(g) After AFASS operations have ceased, the legislative appropriations shall continue to be budgeted and deposited under the name of AFASS or its successor entity, or the entity that assumes entitlement of the obligation for the financing, in the same manner and under the same terms established in this section, so that the total amount of the debt thus refinanced is paid in full.
History —Aug. 9, 1998, No. 223, § 1.