Esta ley enmienda la Ley Núm. 164 de 23 de julio de 1974 para aclarar que el Registro Exclusivo de Licitadores no aplica a la Oficina de Ética Gubernamental ni a la Universidad de Puerto Rico, reconociendo su independencia administrativa y fiscal.
(Approved January 4, 2003)
To amend paragraph
(v) of Section 14 of Act No. 164 of July 23, 1974, with the purpose of clarifying the legislative intent concerning the inapplicability of the Exclusive Register of Bidders to the Office of Government Ethics and the University of Puerto Rico.
Act No. 85 of June 18, 2002 amended Act No. 164 of July 23, 1974, known as "General Services Administration Act" to create an Exclusive Register of Bidders. The purpose of said Act is to provide to all agencies a list of bidders qualified to do business with the Government and to centralize the qualification process for bidders so that each agency purchases from those who have been previously certified by the General Services Administration.
In the Statement of Motives of Act No. 85 it was provided that the use of the Register shall be mandatory for all executive agencies, including those that have been exempted from the application of the "General Services Administration Act".
Since its creation the Office of Government Ethics of Puerto Rico has enjoyed wide administrative and fiscal independence. This administrative independence was established by Act No. 12 of July 24, 1985, as amended, known as the "Ethics in Government Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto
Rico", which entrusted to the Office of Government Ethics public policy of prevention and control of conduct that violates the public Ethics guiding the acts of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico's officials. To comply with such mandate it was exempted from the application of the General Services Administration Act, the "Puerto Rico Public Service Personnel Act" (Act No. 5 of October 14, 1975, as amended) and "Puerto Rico Government Accounting Act" (Act No. 230 of July 23, 1974, as amended. In fact, in order to protect the autonomy of the Office of Government Ethics, the Legislature recently exempted it from the provisions of Act No. 31 of May 21, 2001, as amended. It should be noted that the Office of Government Ethics has its own rules of administration, purchasing, accounting and personnel.
The importance of the Office of Government Ethics administrative independence is based on the delicate task of control and adjudication that has been entrusted to it. We deem it convenient to clarify that Act No. 85, cited, was never extended to the proceedings of the Office of Government Ethics.
This Legislature is committed to insuring the Office of Government Ethics administrative and fiscal independence. This is indispensable to guaranteeing the effectiveness of public policy that has been entrusted to such Institution. Consequently, it is clarified that Act No. 14, is not applicable to the Office of Government Ethics administrative procedures.
With regard to the University of Puerto Rico, in its capacity as the only public institution empowered by law to undertake post high school education and scientific research, it must be stressed that the same has been granted wide administrative autonomy by its enabling Act, Act No. 1 of January 20, 1966, as amended. The goal is to insure that administrative functions can be
exercised freely, without restricting the pattern of freedom under which University teaching activities and research should take place.
In the exercise of its administrative autonomy, the University regulations provide the necessary flexibility for the acquisition of goods, services, materials and equipment that are indispensable for the performance of scientific teaching and research undertaken by each of the University's autonomous units, as well as services to patients rendered by the Medical Sciences Building. Due to the University's special nature and organization, and to the volume of purchase operations, the applicable regulations authorize each institutional unit to make its own purchases through a variety of procedures.
The availability of these mechanisms is particularly important for researchers, who acquire specialized equipment or materials, which usually are unique in their class, and which are supplied by only one seller or must be acquired in the United States or abroad. One must add that the nature of scientific research or the time limitations that the proposals for external subsidy impose, said proposals being those which finance the majority of these projects, do not allow delay in acquisition. Due to this, many purchases are performed directly by the researchers who receive the corresponding subsidy to be used in agreement with the proposal. Even in cases where there could be more than one supplier for an item, due to the highly specialized nature of the product, there is a previous determination that the product of a given supplier is the one to be purchased because it complies better with the special criteria applicable to such product. On the other hand, for many of these suppliers the University represents a very small part of their sales, and since the University has a need for them, they lack incentives to submit to the requirements of a bidder's register.
Due to the special nature of the purchasing process, the requirement of using the Executive Register of Bidders defeats the Act's objective of making purchase procedures more flexible and assuring that products and services are acquired from reliable suppliers. As a result of the above, this amendment is approved with the purpose of preserving the University of Puerto Rico's autonomy in this very important area for its academic and research functions.
Section 1.- The second paragraph of sub-paragraph
(v) of Section 14 of Act No. 164 of July 23, 1974, as amended, is amended to read as follows: "Section 14.- The administrator shall have the following powers, in addition to those conferred by this Chapter, or by other laws.
(v) Shall have the responsibility ...
Every Executive Agency of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, with the exception of the Office of Government Ethics of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the University of Puerto Rico, is compelled to use said register as a prior step for the acquisition of goods and services, and to furnish information to the Administration on contractors or bidders that appear in said Register, and on every matter regarding probable noncompliance by said contractors or bidders. The Administration is bound to furnish every Executive Agency or public corporation of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico information of the contractual background of any bidder and contractor, when the Acquisitions Office of the Administration thus requires it.
Section 2.- This Act shall enter into force immediately after its approval and shall become retroactively effective to June 18, 2002.
I hereby certify to the Secretary of State that the following Act No. 54 (H.B. 2897) of the $4^{ ext {th }}$.Session of the $14^{ ext {th }}$ Legislature of Puerto Rico:
AN ACT to amend paragraph
(v) of Section 14 of Act No. 164 of July 23, 1974, with the purpose of clarifying the legislative intent concerning the inapplicability of the Exclusive Register of Bidders to the Office of Government Ethics and the University of Puerto Rico, has been translated from Spanish to English and that the English version is correct.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, today $26^{ ext {st }}$ of February of 2004.
Elba Rosa Rodríguez-Fuentes Director