Esta ley enmienda la Ley Núm. 99 de 5 de mayo de 1941 para incluir a la Oficina del Contralor de Puerto Rico dentro de las disposiciones que prohíben el nepotismo en la Rama Legislativa, extendiendo la prohibición de empleo a personas con parentesco hasta el tercer grado de consanguinidad o segundo de afinidad con miembros de la Legislatura.
(Approved May 15, 2003)
To amend Section 1 of Act No. 99 of May 5, 1941, as amended, to include the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico among its provisions against the practice of nepotism.
Act No. 99 of May 5, 1941, as amended, prohibits employment in the Puerto Rico Legislature, its Committees, dependencies, or adjoined offices, of any person who has a relationship to any of its members up to the third degree of consanguinity or the second degree of affinity, with the exclusion from its application of the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico, an organism adjoined to the Legislative Branch.
Referenced Act No. 99, supra, intends to prohibit the practice of nepotism in the Legislative Branch. Said prohibition, among its effects, intends to avoid the appearance of, or possible conflicts of interest in the Legislative Branch. Therefore, and in the interest of sponsoring the purest administration of public matters, this Legislature eliminates the exclusion of the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico from the application of Act No. 99 of May 5, 1941, as amended, in such a manner that the legal rule in effect for the Office of the Ombudsman and other legislative organisms shall hereby also apply to the same.
Section 1.- Section 1 of Act No. 99 of May 5, 1941, as amended, is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section 1.- No person who has a relationship to a third degree of consanguinity or second degree of affinity with any of the members of the Legislature may be appointed as an employee or official, nor contracted to render services for any remuneration whatsoever in the Legislature of Puerto Rico, its Committees, dependencies or attached offices. The provisions set forth in this Section shall not apply to persons to whom the aforementioned kinship arrives after their appointment or original contracting."
Section 2.- This Act shall take effect immediately after its approval.
I hereby certify to the Secretary of State that the following Act No. 129 (H.B. 2173) of the $5^{ ext {th }}$ Session of the $14^{ ext {th }}$ Legislature of Puerto Rico:
AN ACT to amend Section 1 of Act No. 99 of May 5, 1941, as amended, to include the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico among its provisions against the practice of nepotism, has been translated from Spanish to English and that the English version is correct.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, today $3^{ ext {rd }}$ of March of 2004.
Elba Rosa Rodríguez-Fuentes Director