2025 Laws of Puerto Rico
Title 3 - Executive (Chs. 1 — 145)
Chapter 13 - Department of Treasury (§§ 221 — 286)
§ 283f. Deposit of public funds
(a) The Secretary shall collect all public funds of the dependencies, no matter what their source. The Secretary shall appoint, at the request of the dependencies or whenever he deems it convenient, collectors whose duty shall be to collect public funds that may be received in the proper dependencies. These collectors shall be considered agents of the Secretary and shall be governed by the regulations prescribed by him.
(b) All public funds of the agencies which are not allocated by law for a specific purpose, shall be credited to the General Fund of the Commonwealth Treasury and shall be deposited entirely in the Secretary’s checking account or in any other bank account he may deem convenient to establish. Likewise, it is hereby provided, that as of July 1st, 2017, any special State fund and any other income of the agencies and public corporations shall be deposited entirely in the State Treasury, under the custody of the Secretary of the Treasury or the banking entity it deems appropriate. The Secretary of the Treasury is further empowered to determine the order of priority of the payments to be disbursed chargeable to special State funds and other income, in accordance with the budget approved and the Fiscal Plan without it being construed as a limitation on the powers conferred to the Governor and the Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority by virtue of the provisions of §§ 9431 et seq. of this title. This provision shall have supremacy over any other provision that is in contravention of or inconsistent with the provisions of §§ 283-283p of this title. For each fiscal year, any amount in excess of the budgeted amount authorized by the Office of Management and Budget to the agencies and public corporations originating from special State funds shall be covered into the Budget Fund created by virtue of §§ 101 et seq. of Title 23. This provision shall not apply to funds allocated to municipalities on account of the sales and use tax. This provision shall not apply to funds originating from private donations received by government entities with a social welfare function.
(c) Dependencies which administer contracts and/or federal subsidies shall withhold the reimbursements of indirect costs recovered from the federal government, attributed to their administrative efforts. The Department of the Treasury shall withhold from said reimbursements the part attributed to the centralized services rendered. Such collections shall not be covered into the General Fund of the Commonwealth Treasury and shall be entered in the books pursuant to the provisions of §§ 283—283p of this title and the regulations promulgated by the Secretary to such effect. Nevertheless, such funds must be considered in the annual budget of expenditures of the corresponding dependencies and shall be governed by the provisions of Act 213 of May 12, 1942.
(d) The provisions of this section notwithstanding, and as an exception to the matters established in § 283a(j) of this title, the monies received by the executive dependencies whose operating expenses proceed from the General Fund, on account of claims to insurance companies for losses or damage to public property caused by calamities, such as, and not deemed as a limitation, war, hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, floods, fire or plagues, shall be accounted for in the books of the Secretary apart from any other funds received by said dependencies and without a specific fiscal year. The executive dependencies shall use these monies solely to repair and replace the damaged property or to acquire property of a similar nature to that damaged or lost. The Secretary, by means of regulations to that effect, shall promulgate the standards which will apply to the use of such funds, and their accounting.
The monies received by the legislative and judiciary dependencies on account of claims to insurance companies for loss or damage of public property caused by calamities, such as, and not deemed as a limitation, wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, floods, fire, plagues or accidents, shall be accounted for in the books of the Secretary, apart from any other funds received by said dependencies and regardless of a specific fiscal year. The legislative and judiciary branches, by means of regulations to such effect and according to the freedom of action conferred by §§ 283—283p of this title, shall promulgate the standards which will apply to the use of such funds. That use shall conform to the purpose for which the insurance policies were acquired.
(e) As of July 1st, 2017, any special State funds created by law for specific purposes shall continue to be used for the purposes for which they were allocated by law, in accordance with the Recommended Budget of the Office of Management and Budget and the Fiscal Plan. Likewise, the Office of Management and Budget is hereby empowered to create a reserve under its custody, as prescribed by regulations, which allows budget control for any item of expenditures chargeable to special State funds and other income. Should there be any inconsistency between the law and the use of the funds with the Fiscal Plan, the purpose provided for in the Fiscal Plan approved in accordance with PROMESA shall prevail.
History
—July 23, 1974, No. 230, Part 2, p. 183, § 7; July 20, 1979, No. 142, p. 335; May 31, 1991, No. 8, § 1; Aug. 20, 1997, No. 93, § 4; Apr. 29, 2017, No. 26, § 6.02.
