2025 Laws of Puerto Rico
Title 2 - Legislature (Chs. 1 — 46)
Chapter 5 - Comptroller (§§ 71 — 100)
§ 97. Copies of contracts, briefs and documents
(a) Government and municipal entities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, with no exception whatsoever, shall keep a registry of all contracts executed, including amendments thereto, and shall remit a copy thereof to the Office of the Comptroller within fifteen (15) days following the date of the execution or amendment of the contract. This period shall be extended to thirty (30) days when the contract is executed outside of Puerto Rico. When deeds for the acquisition or disposal of real property are executed, a copy of every writ and document connected to the negotiation shall also be sent to the Comptroller. The period of fifteen (15) or thirty (30) days, as applicable, shall be extended for fifteen (15) additional days, provided just cause is shown and it is so determined by the Office of the Comptroller. It shall be understood that a contract or amendment to a contract is executed outside of Puerto Rico when it is executed by all the appearing parties outside of Puerto Rico, or the last of these to sign the contract does so outside of Puerto Rico.
In the case whereby the Comptroller notifies any objection to the contract filed, the government entity shall have a term of thirty (30) days to correct the matter.
(b) The term “government entity” shall include every department, agency, instrumentality, office and all other bodies of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, including every public corporation, its subsidiaries or any government entity with its own juridical personality, heretofore or hereafter created by law, with no exception whatsoever. The term “municipal entity” refers to the municipalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, including the special municipal corporations and the consortiums.
(c) The Comptroller shall prescribe by regulations which of the contracts executed by the government entities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall be exempt from submission to the Office.
(d) Noncompliance with the provisions of this section, or with the equivalent provision related to contract registries included in § 4366 of Title 21, known as the “Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Autonomous Municipalities Act” shall not in itself be cause for a competent court to declare any legally valid contract or juridical business null. However, no provision or consideration of services object of a contract may be demanded until the provisions of this section have been complied with. Under no circumstances shall it be construed that this section allows for the execution of professional services or consulting contracts by agencies and government entities retroactively. All government entities shall only pay for services rendered, and the contracting parties shall always be obligated to render the services on a future date. All contracts shall meet the requirements established in §§ 8611-8615 of Title 3. Any violation of the provisions of this subsection shall void the executed contract.
(e) Every contract subject to registration pursuant to this section shall contain a clear and conspicuous notice that shall read as follows: “No provision or consideration of services object of this contract may be demanded until the same has been filed for registration with the Office of the Comptroller pursuant to the provisions of Act No. 18 of October 30, 1975, as amended [§§ 97 and 98 of this title]”.
History
—Oct. 30, 1975, No. 18, p. 817, § 1; Nov. 29, 1990, No. 17, p. 1469; May 31, 2004, No. 127, § 1; Mar. 20, 2015, No. 33, § 1; Dec. 27, 2016, No. 197, § 1.
