P.R. Laws tit. 3, § 8771
The Secretary of the Department of the Treasury in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget and the heads of agencies of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall be responsible for designing or approving the fiscal organization, the uniform accounting system and the procedures for payment, revenues and property registry in all agencies. These shall be designed in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles and all fiscal reports to be used shall be reviewed as part of the procedures. The following guidelines shall also be followed:
(a) The accounting and property registry systems and procedures shall be designed in such a way that the agencies may carry out their functions and at the same time serve as basis to maintain a uniform and coordinated accounting system. They shall also provide a complete tabulation of the results of the financial operations and further furnish the financial information necessary to assist the Legislature and the agencies of the Executive Branch in the performance of their respective responsibility.
(b) The Uniform Accounting System shall register transactions according to fund and shall be based on the generally accepted accounting principles as well as on the requirements established by the Governmental Accounting Standard Board (GASB). The guidelines set forth by the National Committee on Governmental Accounting (NCGA), and the Governmental Accounting, Auditing and Financing Reporting, commonly known as the Blue Book, shall also be used as basis for the designing of this system and the fiscal procedures of the agencies of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and §§ 283 et seq. of this title, known as the “Government of Puerto Rico Accounting Act”.
(c) It shall be compulsory for all agencies to use the uniform accounting system designed and approved by the Department of the Treasury regarding its account structure, its requirement for financial reports and its internal control standards.
The Uniform Accounting System established in this section shall contain in addition to the aforementioned requirements, the following:
(1) Complete information on the results of the operations of the agencies of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(2) Financial information that is adequate and necessary for a sound public administration.
(3) Effective accounting of all funds, properties, and assets belonging to the agencies.
(4) Reliable financial statements and reports that serve as the basis to prepare and justify the budgetary needs of the agencies.
(d) The procedures to conduct transactions such as: incur expenses, make payments, receive and deposit public funds, as well as for the control and accounting of public property, shall contain the adequate controls to prevent committing irregularities. This provision shall guarantee transparency and purity in fiscal procedures, without prejudice to the precepts of §§ 283 et seq. of this title, better known as the “Government of Puerto Rico Accounting Act”, in that which is incompatible with the economies directed in this chapter.
(e) The Secretary or the Executive Director of every agency and the other officers shall cooperate with the Office of the Management and Budget and the Department of the Treasury in the design of the fiscal organization of their respective agency, of the uniform accounting system and in the procedures for payments, revenues and property registry. Once said system has been approved, the adoption and continuous use thereof shall be mandatory. The Department of the Treasury shall provide advisory services and the assistance needed for the installation and use of said system, such as the details of the procedures, without prejudice to the precepts of §§ 283 et seq. of this title, better known as the “Government of Puerto Rico Accounting Act”, in that which is incompatible with the economies directed in this chapter.
(f) The Secretary of the Treasury shall follow up on the fiscal organization as well as on the accounting and property registry system and procedures of every agency to verify full compliance thereof. The accounting and property registry system and procedures may be reviewed to prevent loss of their effectiveness, in accordance to the changing needs of the government and the modern norms that govern the matter.
(g) Every agency shall be responsible for the implementation of a uniform accounting system which allows the production of the reports required. The Secretary of the Treasury shall certify the system one (1) year after the implementation process has begun and after employees and technicians have been trained, the system has been installed in its totality and any technical and design deficiency has been corrected, which shall allow the production of the necessary reports. The Secretary of the Treasury shall certify every agency after one (1) year, or in lieu thereof, it shall complete the process for this certification in the term of one (1) additional year. Once the administrative tasks of the Secretary of the Treasury have been completed, if there is an agency that after two (2) years as of the beginning of the implementation process cannot be certified, the Director may extend the process for an additional period to be agreed upon by the agencies, but which shall never exceed one (1) year.
(h) It shall be the responsibility of the agencies to have the balance of the accounts, the bank reconcilements and the accounts payable or receivable as a requirement at the time of entering the information in the Uniform Accounting System. When this information is not available, the agency shall notify the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of the Office of the Management and Budget who shall conduct an evaluation to establish alternatives for compliance with the purposes of this subsection.
(i) An Advisory Board is hereby created, to be constituted by the Director of the Office of the Management and Budget, the President of the Government Development Bank and the President of the Planning Board so that together with the Secretary of the Treasury, it undertakes the main function of overseeing the orderly establishment of the due fiscal and organizational controls needed to achieve the implementation and certification of the Uniform Accounting Systems. This Board shall establish the regulations needed to comply with its duties.
(j) The Secretary of the Treasury shall provide access to the Uniform Accounting System to the following officers of the Legislative Branch: the President and Speaker of both Legislative Bodies, the Chairpersons of the Committees on Ways and Means of the House and the Senate; the Chairperson of the Committee on Budget and Appropriations of the House; to the majority and minority floor leaders in both bodies and to the Office of the Comptroller. This access shall be limited to “read only” and alterations shall not be made.
Taking into consideration the specific situation of the concerned agency, and upon receipt of the evaluation and recommendations of the Advisory Board, the Secretary of the Treasury shall:
(1) Authorize the elimination of incorrect information that has been entered into the system prior to its certification.
(2) Fix the single audit balances as the starting point.
(3) The Uniform Accounting System shall begin to operate on the date in which it is certified as correct and reliable.
An agency that cannot balance its accounting history for lack of the necessary documents or for any other reason that makes it impossible for it to comply with this mandate of law, whether or not it is a component of the Uniform Accounting System, may make a cash cutoff and carry out the necessary adjustment in its accounts. This shall be conditioned to submission by the agency [to the Secretary of the Treasury] of a detailed evaluation of how the accounting processes were deviated and of a proposal that contains guarantees in the form of internal and administrative controls that said agency shall not incur in the same irregularities.
However, none of these measures shall release the agencies of the responsibility of making all efforts possible to correct their accounting system and maintain the document pertaining to their operations organized in such a form that the same may be audited during non-automated periods.
The Senate and the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico shall develop the systems that shall allow them to exercise to the fullest extent the fiscal autonomy granted by Act No. 140 of June 11, 2004, no later than June 30, 2007. The Secretary of the Department of the Treasury and other officers of the Executive Branch shall provide all the assistance needed to expedite compliance with this provision.
History —May 25, 2006, No. 103, § 22, eff. July 1, 2006.