P.R. Laws tit. 8, § 506
(1) The Administrator shall have the responsibilities, faculties and powers that are necessary and convenient to execute the provisions set forth by this chapter, including, without it being understood as a limitation, the following:
(a) Take all necessary administrative and judicial steps and actions to ensure compliance with the purposes set forth by this chapter.
(b) Prepare, modify and submit the Commonwealth plan for child support services to the Secretary, as well as the budget needed to execute the obligations imposed by this chapter.
(c) To enter into agreements and coordinate administratively with the pertinent government agencies, departments or bodies, and the Judicial Branch, as well as with other public or private institutions, the adoption of measures addressed to attaining compliance of the public policy established in this chapter, as well as its purposes and objectives.
(d) To establish work agreements or reciprocity agreements with other state jurisdictions of the United States or foreign countries to achieve the purposes of the Administration.
(e) To identify and locate parents or any other persons who are legally bound to provide child support in all cases where it is necessary, or when requested to do so in order to comply with the purposes of this chapter as set forth in § 509 of this title.
(f) To initiate the corresponding legal actions to recover support payments from those persons whose right to support has been ceded in behalf of the Department as well as to be the depository of said support payments, pursuant to the provisions set forth in § 508 of this title, and to collect from third parties for services rendered.
(g) To render child support services authorized by this chapter to any private person that requests them, even though the person does not qualify to receive the benefits of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Program in judicial and administrative actions to establish filiation or the paternity of children born out of wedlock, as well as to establish, fix, modify, review, and enforce compliance of the obligation to provide child support from any person so bound by law. The legal representation offered by the Administrator pursuant to the provisions set forth by this chapter shall be in the best interests of the minor.
(h) Designate deputy prosecutors to represent the Administration in child support procedures and before other agencies, government bodies and the courts in the Commonwealth as well as in the United States. The Administrator may request the Secretary of Justice to appoint these lawyers as special prosecutors so that, as part of their functions, they can participate in procedures of criminal nature for violations of the laws, regulations or orders administered by the Administration. This faculty may be delegated by the Secretary of Justice on the Deputy Secretary, the Assistant Secretaries and the Chief of the Investigations and Criminal Procedures Division of the Department of Justice.
(i) Render the services needed to demand, collect, distribute and recover child support payments pursuant to the regulations adopted.
(j) To determine which persons among those who owe child support payments receive or have filed for unemployment benefits under § 701 of Title 29.
If the debtor receives or has filed for unemployment compensation, the Administration may take the necessary steps to collect the money owed for child support from unemployment benefits applied for by the indebted obligor pursuant to applicable federal legislation and regulations.
(k) To keep a register of persons who owe child support payments. Also, to disclose the child support services authorized by this chapter and the criteria, eligibility requirements, and costs of same, if any.
(l) To establish a broad and vigorous educational program to promote compliance with the moral and legal obligation of the parents and persons responsible for providing child support; coordinate and promote that persons and educational, charitable, civic, religious, social, recreational, professional, occupational, trade union, commercial, industrial and agricultural entities foster the public policy of responsible parenthood and request the cooperation of all profitable or nonprofit public and private mass communications media to contribute to the educational process of compliance with the responsibility of child support. To achieve these purposes, the Administration is empowered to organize all sorts of activities and to use all means of communication, whether personal, group or mass, including the production and placing of advertisements on the radio, press, television and other communications media. The Administration shall also divulge the availability of child support services, including information about the cost and locations where it may be requested. In addition, it shall promote the use of procedures for voluntary acknowledgement of paternity, and the duty to provide child support pursuant to this chapter.
(m) Request, receive and accept funds and donations to render the services authorized by this chapter and execute contracts and any other instrument that is necessary and convenient to exercise any of his/her powers, as well as to contract the necessary technical services to carry out investigations, process cases and data, collect child support payments, perform laboratory tests, and any other effort needed to comply with the purposes of this chapter, with individuals, groups, corporations, any federal agency, the government of the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its agencies or political subdivisions.
(n) To carry out research and studies to determine and evaluate the nature of the services to be rendered.
(o) To adopt, with the approval of the Secretary, the regulations and procedures needed to carry out the purposes of this chapter. The Administrator is expressly empowered to determine through regulations those rules and norms needed to conduct the administrative procedures and those services for which he/she shall require the payment of a reasonable sum, and the reimbursement of the expenses incurred to render services, as well as to determine who shall be requested to pay, the criteria for said payment, the amount to be paid, and the manner of payment.
(p) To establish, with the approval of the Secretary, the internal organization of the Administration and the mechanisms for the coordination and programmatic and operational integration needed for an integral treatment of the family, pursuant to the functions and duties of the Department.
(q) Without prejudice to the dispositions set forth in other laws, the Administrator or the person designated by same may certify official translations from one language into another, from or into English, Spanish, or other languages, of documents, orders, rulings, or administrative or judicial resolutions pertaining to his/her duties.
(r) To establish a State Register of Child Support Cases that shall contain uniform elements of information, pursuant to the requirements in this chapter, for all child support orders issued in Puerto Rico after January 1, 1998, to maintain a record of the payments in all registered cases, and update them with the information obtained through the comparison and exchange of federal and state cases, from other registers, and from the welfare agencies and the Aid to Medical Indigent Families Program (Medicaid) of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, pursuant to § 6103 of the Federal Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
(s) To establish a State Register of New Employees and require from all employers in Puerto Rico to provide uniform elements of information on all new employees, pursuant to the provisions set forth by this chapter. Also, to perform information cross references against the State Register of Child Support Cases to initiate income withholding, when so required.
(t) Whenever there exists prima facie evidence that an obligor or an individual against whom child support action is pending transfers property or income to evade current or future child support payments, to file a court case to request the annulment of said transfer, or alternatively, to obtain a remedy in the best interest of the obligee, pursuant to §§ 401 et seq. of Title 19, the Commercial Transactions Act, as amended, and to establish procedures to ensure that said action shall be taken whenever necessary.
(u) Establish an evaluation unit to perform annual revisions to comply with local and federal laws pertaining to Title IV-D programs, using the automated child support system to extract and remit information about the level of achievement obtained with respect to the applicable performance indicators, in a format and manner that is consistent with the standard procedures set forth by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources of the United States.
(v) To establish agreements with financial institutions doing business in Puerto Rico to develop and operate, in coordination with same, an automated data exchange and cross reference system. All financial institutions shall be required to provide every trimester, the name, address of record, social security number or other taxpayer identification number, and information that identifies each obligor who has an account in said institution and owes child support, as identified by the Administrator by name, social security number or other taxpayer identification number. Also, the Administration is empowered to remit the information obtained through these agreements to other Government agencies of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to administer tax laws or verify financial eligibility for assistance programs. The agreements established pursuant to this section shall contain all the terms required by the applicable federal legislation, including dispositions on immunity from liability, and provide that in reply to a notification of debt issued pursuant to § 524 of this title, the assets corresponding to the child support debt that are in the hands of the financial institution concerned may be frozen or released, as the case may be, to the Administration.
(2) The Administrator or his/her designee, in both local and interstate cases, without need to obtain an order from a court of Puerto Rico, an administrative judge, or a court of another state of the United States, even acknowledging the authority of Title IV-D agencies of the [United] States, shall have the authority to take the following expedited administrative actions:
(a) Order genetic tests to establish paternity.
(b) To issue subpoenas for the discovery of evidence, whether financial or of any other type, necessary to establish, modify or enforce a support obligation.
(c) To require all employers, including employers for profit and nonprofit, and government employers, to provide information with respect to the employment, compensation and benefits of any person hired as an employee or contractor without delay.
(d) To obtain access to the following information to perform the duties of the Title IV-D agency, subject to the immunity from liability of the entities that provide such access and to all the information security and privacy safeguards set forth in the federal and state laws and regulations:
(i) Records kept by all government agencies, including, without it being understood as a limitation, the Demographics Registry, the Department of the Treasury, records related to real and movable property, occupational and professional licenses, records on property and control of corporations, partnerships and other businesses, employment safety records from the Department of Transportation and Public Works, penal records, and
(ii) pursuant to a subpoena or requirement, certain records in the hands of private entities, such as public utilities, cable television companies and financial institutions, with respect to persons against whom a child support claim has been filed or is pending, consisting of the name and address of said persons, and with respect to the financial institutions, information on assets and liabilities.
(e) In any child support action before the Puerto Rico court, the administrative judge or any other court, after notifying the obligor and the obligee, to order the obligor or other person paying to change the recipient to the Administration or another appropriate Title IV-D agency.
(f) In any child support action before the Puerto Rico court or any other court, to order income withholding. In cases of child support in arrears, to also order the withholding of an additional amount for the payment of child support in arrears. Provided, That, said additional amount shall not exceed thirty percent (30%) of the child support.
(g) In cases of child support in arrears, to seize property located in Puerto Rico and, in cases initiated by the Administration in any other state:
(i) To issue an order to seize periodic or lump sum payments from the unemployment agency, the workers compensation agency, or from judgments, transactions and lottery prizes, and to issue an order to freeze and seize the assets of the obligor that is in the hands of financial institutions or freeze and seize the public or private retirement funds of the obligor, and
(ii) to impose liens pursuant to § 524 of this title to force the sale of property and the distribution of the amounts collected for same.
(3) Administrative action taken to enforce child support payments pursuant to clauses (a), (e), (f) and (g) of subsection (2) of this section shall be subject to the requirement of a notification to the affected party of the right to submit a reconsideration request to the administrative judge. Administrative action to enforce child support taken pursuant to subsection (2) of this section in interstate cases, with respect to income withholding, the imposition of seizing or liens, and the issuing of administrative requirements, shall be processed using the forms prepared by federal legislation and promulgated by the Secretary of the Health and Human Resources Department of the United States.
(4) Failure to comply voluntarily with any subpoena or requirement issued by the Administrator or any another Title IV-D agency, pursuant to subsection (2) of this section shall be sanctioned pursuant to the dispositions set forth in subsection (f) of § 506b of this title. The Administrator shall enforce determinations of another Title IV-D agency, which acts pursuant to the provisions set forth in subsection (2) of this section, when so required.
History —Dec. 30, 1986, No. 5, p. 887, art. IV, § 7; July 31, 1991, No. 40, § 1; Aug. 17, 1994, No. 86, § 11; Dec. 20, 1997, No. 180, § 3; Aug. 1, 2003, No. 178, § 6.