P.R. Laws tit. 3, § 8763
Any vacancy in a career personnel position at the time of effectiveness of this act or that becomes vacant after the approval thereof and whose cost is defrayed chargeable to the General Fund, shall remain vacant. After a term that shall never be less than six (6) months, if it is necessary to fill the position, it shall be required that the agency establish a justification to fill the position and that the Office of the Management and Budget authorizes it in writing. The following order of priority shall be followed at the time of recruiting personnel to fill the vacancy:
(a) The vacancy shall be filled due to the promotion or transfer of another person who is a career employee of the same agency whose position shall, in turn, become vacant.
(b) When there are no persons in the same agency with the qualifications required to fill the position, it may be covered by a duly qualified person pursuant to the provisions of §§ 1461 et seq. of this title, known as the “Public Service Human Resources Administration Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico”, who holds a position of trust in another agency, who, if necessary may, in turn, be substituted, in accordance with the provisions of this section.
(c) If there is no qualified personnel in any of the agencies of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to fill said position, the same shall remain vacant, unless there is a certification from the Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the use of the funds, as well as a certification of need from the Director of the Human Resources Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to the effect that the position is essential for the regular operation of the agency.
(d) A Registry of Positions and Related Information is hereby created as of January 1, 2008, for all government entities, without any exception whatsoever that constitute the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches, including public corporations and their subsidiaries, municipalities, special and municipal corporations and consortia. The heads of said government entities shall render a monthly report to the Office of the Comptroller that shall contain the following information:
(1) Total of the budget of the entity classified by funds: general, special, federal or any other funds, appropriations and revenues of the entity.
(2) Total of the budget of the entity apportioned to payroll and costs related thereto classified by funds: general, special, federal or any other funds, appropriations and revenues of the entity.
(3) Total actual expense of the payroll and costs related thereto of the positions filled classified by funds: general, special, federal or any other funds, appropriations and revenues of the entity.
(4) Total amount of:
(A) Authorized positions, filled and vacant, classified by category, whether career, transitory, irregular, of trust or of any other category within the entity.
(B) Positions created and eliminated, classified by category.
(C) Appointments, classified by category.
(D) Separations from employment whether due to resignation, dismissal, death, retirement or any other reason, classified by category.
(E) Changes in classification of positions that affect the salary, classified by category.
(F) Employees on unpaid leave of absence, reported to the State Insurance Fund and on special assignment.
(5) Any other additional information that the Comptroller deems necessary in order to comply with the purpose of this chapter.
The report shall be submitted to the Office of the Comptroller no later than thirty (30) calendar days after the end of the month and shall not contain the names of officers or employees, or their Social Security number. The Comptroller may grant an extension of fifteen (15) additional days, or less, to render the report in meritorious cases, after a duly founded request. The reports shall be certified by the head of the corresponding government entity. The government entities shall keep a record of all the information that supports each report submitted by them. The Registry of Positions and Related Information shall be published on the Web page of the Office of the Comptroller.
The Comptroller is hereby authorized to approve the regulations that are needed to put this provision in effect and to resort to the Court of First Instance, San Juan Part, to compel officers who fail to comply with the provisions set forth in this chapter.
Exempted from the provisions of this section are recruitments for the following positions: (1) police officers; (2) classroom teachers; (3) health professionals; (4) firefighters; (5) correctional officers; (6) social workers; (7) national guards, if applicable, and (8) technical positions in the Institute of Forensic Science. The appointments to be made by the Governor in the Office of the Governor or in accordance with the legislation such as judges, prosecutors, children and family special prosecutors, property registrars, members of boards, among others, are also excluded. These positions, however, shall be included in the Registry of Positions and Related Information as provided for in subsection (d) of this section.
The positions that become vacant and are not covered through this procedure shall be administered as provided by law. The reduction of trust positions in the Government of Puerto Rico shall also be carried out as provided by law.
The Human Resources Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is hereby directed to provide a study of the classification of positions and their equivalences in all the agencies of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico within a term not greater than two hundred and seventy (270) days as of the approval of this act, in order to temper the provisions of §§ 1461 et seq. of this title, known as the “Public Service Human Resources Administration Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico”, with the provisions of this chapter, taking into consideration the effect on other laws that regulate the public service personnel system.
Likewise, the Secretary of the Department of Education is hereby directed, together with the Human Resources Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, to review the formula between the teaching and non-teaching employees of the agency in order to conduct a study to establish an adequate balance between the aforesaid personnel directed to providing an action plan which shall regulate the contracting and appointment of personnel within the Department. This study shall be presented, together with the action plan, to the Legislature not later than December 31, 2006.
Under no circumstances shall this provision be construed as a measure directed to reducing the salaries of public employees nor to dismissing career employees, nor to be used as a mechanism to impair vested rights or rights agreed upon through collective bargaining agreements or as an impediment for negotiation in good faith, pursuant to §§ 1451 et seq. of this title, better known as the “Puerto Rico Public Service Labor Relation Act”, and to §§ 62 et seq. of Title 29, better known as the “Puerto Rico Labor Relations Act”.
Positions paid with federal funds that become vacant shall be preferentially covered with employees who hold positions paid with state funds, unless otherwise provided by federal legislation.
History —May 25, 2006, No. 103, § 14; Mar. 18, 2008, No. 29, §§ 1, 2.