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SECTION 22.- There shall be a Comptroller who will be appointed by the Governor at the advice and with the consent of the majority of the total number of members of the House. The Comptroller shall meet the requirements stipulated by the law; he shall hold office for a term of ten years, and till such time as his successor is appointed and takes office.
The Comptroller shall oversee all the receipts, accounts and disbursements of the State, its agencies and implementing bodies, as well as the municipalities, in order to ascertain whether everything has been carried out in accordance with the law. It shall lay annual reports and all other special reports required of it before the Legislative Assembly or the Governor.
In the discharge of his duties the Comptroller is authorised to take testimonies and statements and summon witnesses, on pain of contempt, to appear before him and produce the books, letters, documents, papers, files, and all other objects that may be necessary for complete knowledge of the matter under investigation.
The Comptroller can be relieved of his duties for the causes and through the procedure laid down in the following section.
SECTION 11.- The salaries of the Governor, Secretaries of the Government, members of the Legislative Assembly and judges shall be fixed by a special law and, with the exception of the members of the Legislative Assembly, these salaries can not be reduced during the term for which such persons have been elected or appointed. The salaries of the Governor and the Comptroller can not be increased during their term of office. No increase in the salaries of the members of the Legislative Assembly shall come into effect until the term of the Assembly that approved such increase is over. Any reduction in the salaries of the members of the Legislative Assembly shall prevail only during the term of the Legislative Assembly approving such reduction.
Article 1.-The Office of the Comptroller of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico is hereby established, to be headed by the Comptroller, who shall basically be accountable to the Legislative Assembly.
Article 2.- Nobody can become the Controller unless he has completed thirty years of age and is a citizen of the United States of America and a citizen and resident of Puerto Rico.
Article 3.- The Comptroller shall have the duties assigned to him in Article III, Section 22, of the Constitution of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico, and he shall perform such duties with regard to the government accounts, funds, receipts, expenditure and property, as well as with regard to those held in trusteeship. In the exercise of these duties the Comptroller can employ the generally accepted norms and methods that are in keeping with the current practices used in the examination of accounts.
Article 3A.-This Article was added through Law No. 65 of the 31st May, 1973. (CFRSE, infra)
Article 4.- (Revoked by Law No. 8 of 11th May 1962).
Article 5.- (Revoked)
Article 6.- In case of total or permanent incapacity of the Comptroller, the post shall be declared vacant by the Legislative Assembly through a concurrent resolution passed by a majority of the total number of members comprising each house. The Governor shall then appoint a new Comptroller in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article III, Section 22 of the Constitution of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico.
Article 7.-In case of illness or absence, the Comptroller shall depute one of the officers from his office to fill the post of Comptroller on an interim basis for the period of duration of his illness or absence.
In case the Comptroller is temporarily incapacitated and has not designated an interim successor, the Governor shall select an officer from the Comptroller’s Office to fill the post of Comptroller during the temporary absence of the same. The procedure to be followed in the appointment of an interim Comptroller who will hold office for the time it takes to appoint a permanent Comptroller, shall be the same as that stipulated in Article 6 of this Law.
The officer who has been designated pursuant to this Article, shall have the same powers and duties as the Comptroller.
Article 8.- The Comptroller’s Office shall be subject to all the laws and rules that are normally applied to government offices, except that the Governor shall include the calculations for the current expenditure of the Office in the Model Budget, and the Planning Commission shall include them in the Economic Plan, without any modifications.
Article 9.- In case of non-appearance or refusal to obey a summons issued by the Comptroller or by the officer deputed by him, any Superior Court of Puerto Rico in whose jurisdiction the person guilty of default or refusal is to be found, resides, conducts business or performs his functions, must, at the request of the Comptroller, issue an order to such person requiring him to appear before the Comptroller, or before the officer designated by him, to present evidence, if ordered to do so, or to testify on a matter under investigation. Such person is liable to be in contempt if he disobeys the court order.
Article 10.- No person shall be excused from appearing and testifying, or from submitting books, files, correspondence, documents, or other evidence as ordered in a summons issued by the Comptroller, or by the officer designated by him, based on the fact that the testimony or evidence required from such person might give rise to proceedings against him or expose him to punishment or confiscation. However, no person shall be tried or liable to any punishment or confiscation for reasons of any transaction, matter or thing in respect of which he was forced, after having claimed his right to not testify against himself, to not testify or to present evidence, except if the said person so declaring is not exempted for trial or punishment due to perjury for having made such a declaration. The Governor of Puerto Rico can not be compelled to appear personally and to testify before the Comptroller.
Article 11.-The departments, agencies and offices of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico and the municipalities shall provide the Comptroller all the documents, files and information that he asks for and shall give the officers and employees of the Comptroller’s Office access to all the files and documents.
Article 12.- The Comptroller shall present special reports to the Legislative Assembly and the Governor on the accounts, the disbursements and the receipts of the agencies, offices and political sub-divisions where irregularities or violations of the law have been discovered.
Article 13.- The Comptroller may release to the public any reports from his Office once they have been taken cognisance of by the Governor and the Legislative Assembly.
Article 14.- The Comptroller shall be empowered to adopt and promulgate any rules and regulations, as long as they are not incompatible with the prevailing laws and the Constitution of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico, as might be necessary to improve the performance of his duties, and he shall have his own legal service. Such rules and regulations shall have the force of laws once they are promulgated.
Article 15.- The Comptroller is authorised to use an official seal. All orders, communiqués, summons and certificates issued by the Comptroller shall be presumed to be official documents emanating from the Office of the Comptroller if they bear the official seal.
Article 16.- The Comptroller can delegate any of his functions to any officer in his Office that he wishes, but he can not delegate the function of adopting and promulgating rules and regulations.
Article 17.- The Office of the Comptroller shall be allocated a sum of one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($ 150,000) to carry out the duties assigned to it by this Law in the financial year 1952-53.
Article 18.- Law No. 10 of 8th April 1946, Law No. 347 of 12th May 1947 and Article 81 of Law No. 53 of 28th April 1928, known as the Municipal Law, are hereby revoked. The balance money in the special fund called "Investigation Fund" set up by the above mentioned laws of 1946 and 1947, shall be deposited in the General Fund of the Treasury.
Article 19.- The term "municipalities", according to this Law, includes the Government of the Capital city.
Article 20.- This law, due to its urgent and essential nature, shall come into effect as soon as the Constitution of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico comes into force.
Article 1.- Article No. 3A is added to Law No. 9 of 24th July 1952, that shall read as follows:
"Article 3A.- The Comptroller of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico can call upon any department, agency, implementing body and any other organisation of the Government of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico to temporarily lend him professional and technical personnel from among their officers and employees to help his Office in carrying out its control duties as required by law, in investigations and studies requiring technical and professional knowledge. Any government entity called upon to afford such assistance is required to do so.
Similarly, the Comptroller of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico, in the discharge of his control duties, can commission any survey, research or job required for the performance of his duties to any Government department, agency, implementing body or other organisation or political sub-division. The body concerned must give due priority to carrying out the task entrusted to it by the Comptroller. The body entrusted with such a task may ask the Comptroller of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico, if in its opinion this is necessary, to transfer whatever sum of money the Comptroller deems reasonable to cover the costs of the task.
If the body in question is not in a position to dispense with the officers or employees requested by the Comptroller of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico, or cannot render the services at the time that the Comptroller wants, the body must propose an alternative date or dates on which the officers or employees will be available or the services can be provided. These dates must be as close as possible to the time that the Comptroller of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico is interested in having such personnel or services.
Any department, agency, implementing body or public corporation of the Government of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico, including the municipalities, can ask the Comptroller of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico to avail of the services of any of its officers or employees in order to facilitate or hasten any inspection being conducted by the Comptroller of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico in the said body. In such a case, the officer or employee shall perform the function concerned, under the jurisdiction and direction of the Office of the Comptroller of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico, subject to the conditions agreed upon by both parties.
The Comptroller of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico can enter into a contract for obtaining the services of any type of private expert to help in those investigations or studies that, by their very nature, require the services of highly specialised technical personnel".
Article 2. This law will come into force immediately after it has been passed.
Section 1.- Article 3 of Law No. 2 of 9th July 1986 is amended to read as follows:
"Article 3.- The annual salary of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico will be as indicated below:
On the first of October 1986 $ 50,500
On the first of July 1987 56,000
On the first of July 1990 61,500
On the first of July 1993 67,000
Section 2.- Article 7 of Law No. 2 of 9th July 1986 is amended to read as follows:
Article 7.- Validity
This Law shall come into force on the first of October 1986, except for Article 3 that shall come into effect from the date on which the next Comptroller of Puerto Rico is appointed.
Section 3.- This law shall come into force immediately after it has been approved.
Article 1.- The Comptroller of Puerto Rico is entitled to charge the cost of services that, by joint agreement, it renders to the Federal Government or to any department, agency, implementing body, commission or administrative division of the said Government, for auditing federal funds allocated to the Government of Puerto Rico or to any of its departments, agencies, public corporations or municipalities.
The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico is further authorised to charge for the cost of services that, by mutual agreement, it renders to the Government of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico, or to any of its departments, agencies, public corporations or municipalities, in respect of auditing of federal funds."
(Amended by Law 29 of 01 July 1982)
Article 2.- The amounts thus charged shall be deposited in the General Fund of the Treasury of Puerto Rico.
Article 3.- The Comptroller of Puerto Rico, in his yearly requests for budgetary allocation, shall apply for such additional funds as he deems necessary in order to conduct these audits.
Article 4.- Any law or part of a law that is in conflict with these provisions is hereby revoked.
Article 5.- This law shall come into effect immediately after it has been passed.
