The Corporation and/or the Authority shall retain the liabilities, except for those that the enterprise(s) agree to assume in any transfer contract signed by the Executive Director of the Corporation. The Corporation and/or the Authority is hereby authorized to transfer to the enterprise(s) the liabilities that the enterprise(s) agree to assume, including, but not limited to, the obligation to pay the rental under the lease contracts in which the Corporation and/or the Authority appear as lessee, to the degree that said lease contracts are assignable. All benefits accrued to the Corporation employees and workers up to the transfer date shall be the exclusive responsibility of the Corporation.
It is hereby provided that benefits for early retirement, years of service, payments for dismissal, and other compensations shall be approved for those employees of the Corporation or the Authority who work at the Mercedita Refinery and who qualify and have not been relocated to other government dependencies as of the transfer date. The right of the employees of the Authority who worked at the Mercedita Refinery at the time of the transfer or final closing to enjoy the benefits of Joint Resolution No. 1 of January 1, 1998, is expressly acknowledged, provided they meet the requirements established thereon.
The Corporation and/or the Authority shall assume the losses, if any, corresponding to the 1998 sugarcane crop, which shall be defrayed from the resources to be obtained through a budgetary petition to that effect made to the Office of Management and Budget and to the Legislature. The losses to be assumed by the Corporation and/or the Authority shall not exceed the amount of nine million dollars ($9,000,000). lf the total amount of said losses were to exceed that limit, the Executive Director of the Corporation, or if the latter has been liquidated, the Executive Director of the Authority, shall request additional funds from the Office of Management and Budget and from the Legislature to cover the same.
The Bank is hereby authorized to provide to the Sugar Corporation additional funds for up to a maximum of six million dollars ($6,000,000) which shall be channeled by the Corporation to be used by the colonos of the Coloso and Roig sugar mills. Out [of] said amount, five million dollars ($5,000,000) shall be devoted to cover the operational costs of the sugar mills for the harvest season [of the year 1999, and in the case that said harvest season is not carried out, it shall be utilized in the harvest season] of the year 2000. The remaining one million dollars ($1,000,000) shall be devoted to making the necessary repairs at the Coloso and Roig sugar mills. The Economic Development Bank for Puerto Rico is hereby authorized to provide to the Sugar Corporation additional funds for up to a maximum of two million dollars ($2,000,000) to be secured by the bank pursuant to this chapter, which shall be channeled by the Corporation to be used by the colonos of the Coloso and Roig sugar mills to cover the cost of sugarcane planting and cultivation for the year 2000. The Economic Development Bank for Puerto Rico is furthermore authorized to make available to the colonos of the Coloso and Roig sugar mills the remaining non-disbursed funds for the running expenses for 1999 which were secured by the bank and which add up to two million seven hundred thousand dollars ($2,700,000).
History —Sept. 5, 1996, No. 189, § 6; Dec. 28, 1997, No. 202, § 4; Aug. 17, 1999, No. 271, § 1.