P.R. Laws tit. 28, § 633
The Housing Development and Improvements Administration is hereby vested with the rights and powers necessary or advisable to carry out the program of small community industries, including, without limitation, the following:
(a) To adapt its programs of activities to the financial and social realities of the various regions of the Commonwealth and to the aptitude, capacity and education of its population.
(b) To make regulations to govern the norms of the activities to be developed by this program.
(c) To make contracts for the exercise of its powers therefor.
(d) To acquire by purchase, gift or condemnation, and to declare of public utility, any property necessary to the enforcement of this chapter, and to dispose of said property as may be determined by its requirements.
(e) To sell to the Commonwealth Government or its dependencies, including public officials and employees, or to any person or business partnership, at prevailing market prices, the products manufactured, produced or processed. Every dependency, branch or agency of the Commonwealth Government interested in buying any of the products manufactured by the Division, shall acquire such product preferably through this program.
(f) To appoint or contract for the necessary personnel and to fix the compensation therefor. The personnel of the Division shall not be subject to the provisions of Act No. 345 of May 12, 1947, creating the Office of Personnel.
(g) To accept gifts from, and to make contracts or other transactions with, any federal agency, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the political subdivisions and instrumentalities thereof, and to apply the proceeds of any such gifts to any of its purposes.
(h) To construct, purchase, rent and equip warehouses, factories, and shops wherein to carry out the activities of the Division.
(i) To sell, lease, or cede to groups of its own workmen organized in cooperatives under the General Cooperative Associations Act of Puerto Rico or any other organization, under the terms deemed advisable, the property devoted to a particular industry.
(j) To purchase supplies and equipment without the intervention of the General Supplies Administration.
(k) To loan to natural or artificial persons, under the terms and conditions he may deem convenient and necessary, the sums of money necessary for the establishment or development of small industries within the spirit of this chapter, in those cases in which the necessity and convenience of making such loans is established to the satisfaction of the Executive Director of the Housing Development and Improvements Administration. Any applicant may appeal from [sic] a decision against him to the Secretary of Housing, who shall review the case.
History —May 8, 1951, No. 365, p. 866, § 3; July 1, 1953, No. 111, p. 394.