Duties and prohibitions for public employees in PR

The nine duties, and the word that makes them binding

**Subsection 8 of Section 6.6 of Act 8-2017** does not say these duties are recommendations. It says they **shall constitute essential minimum obligations required of every employee, for whose breach disciplinary action shall be taken**.

Note the verb: **“shall be taken,”** not “may be taken.” As written, the agency has no discretion there: breaching one of these nine duties triggers the duty to discipline. That cuts both ways; it exposes you, and it also takes away the supervisor's “we did nothing to so-and-so” argument.

• **Attend work regularly and punctually**, and work the established schedule.
• **Observe correct, courteous and respectful conduct** with supervisors, coworkers and citizens.
• **Perform efficiently and diligently** the tasks of your position **and others compatible with them** that are assigned to you.
• **Obey your supervisors' orders and instructions** that are **compatible with the authority delegated to them** and with the agency's functions, activities and objectives.
• **Keep confidential** matters related to your work, **unless you receive a formal requirement or permission from a competent authority** requiring you to disclose them.
• **Perform tasks during non-working hours** when the needs of the service so require **and you have been given reasonable notice**.
• **Watch over, preserve and safeguard** (including but not limited to) all public documents, property and interests.
• **Comply with Act 8-2017** and the rules and orders issued under it.
• **Comply with the ethical and moral standards** of **Act 1-2012**, the Puerto Rico Government Ethics Act of 2011, and its regulations.

Three duties carry their own written limit

Read quickly, some of these duties sound unlimited. They are not, and the limits are in the same text, which is exactly what to cite when someone stretches them.

**The duty to obey is not a duty to obey anything.** The text requires obeying orders **compatible with the authority delegated to the supervisor** and with the agency's functions, activities and objectives. An instruction outside that authority, or unrelated to the agency's functions, does not fall within what this subsection obliges you to obey.

**The confidentiality duty has an express way out.** It yields to **a formal requirement or the permission of a competent authority**. It is not a vow of absolute silence: it is confidentiality **unless** there is a formal requirement or permission.

**The off-hours duty has two conditions, not one.** It requires that **the needs of the service so demand** and that **you were notified with reasonable time**. Without reasonable notice, one of the two elements the subsection itself requires is missing.

**And the duty to perform tasks extends to “others compatible”** with your position's, not to any task at all. The word doing the work there is *compatible*.

The prohibitions, and why the list is not closed

**Subsection 9** opens with a phrase worth not skipping: employees **may not perform, among other similar actions**, those it lists. That **“among other similar actions”** means the list **is not exhaustive**: conduct analogous to what is listed falls under the same prohibition even if it is not named.

• **Accepting gifts, donations or any other reward** for work performed as a public employee, **except those authorized by law**.
• **Using your official position for partisan political ends** or other ends incompatible with public service.
• **Performing functions or tasks involving conflicts of interest** with your obligations as a public employee.
• **Doing or omitting anything prohibited by Act 1-2012** on Government Ethics.
• **Engaging in conduct that is improper or harmful to the good name** of the agency or the Government of Puerto Rico.
• **Engaging in prevarication, bribery or immoral conduct.**
• **Impeding the application of Act 8-2017** and its rules; and **knowingly making or accepting a false statement, certification or report** on any matter covered by the Act.
• **Giving, paying, offering, soliciting or accepting (directly or indirectly) money, services or anything of value in exchange for an eligibility, appointment, promotion or other personnel action.**
• **Engaging in conduct related to crimes against the public treasury, public trust and function**, or involving public funds or property.

The prohibition that protects the merit principle

Of the nine prohibitions, one deserves a second reading because it holds up the whole system: **giving, paying, offering, soliciting or accepting, directly or indirectly, money, services or anything of value in exchange for an eligibility, appointment, promotion or other personnel action**.

Look how broad it is. It bars **all four ends** (giving, paying, offering and soliciting, plus accepting) so there is no safe side of the transaction. It bars the **indirect** version, so routing it through a third party does not save it. And it does not speak only of money: it says **services or anything of value**.

Nor is the object of the exchange limited to an appointment: it covers **eligibility** (that is, getting on the register) **promotion**, and any **other personnel action**.

Add the prohibition on **knowingly making or accepting a false statement, certification or report** on any matter covered by the Act, and you have the pair of provisions that turns into an administrative offense what many people describe as “that's how things get done.”

What happens if one of these breaches is pinned on you

Subsections 8 and 9 say **what** is required and **what** is prohibited. The **how** (charges, notice, hearing, suspension) lives in the other subsections of the same Section 6.6, and we cover it in the guide on removal and discipline of public employees. If a letter already reached you, that is the one to read.

Two scenarios from the same article worth knowing even though they are not “discipline” strictly speaking. **Subsection 13** provides that any employee **convicted of any felony or of a crime involving moral turpitude or breach of official duties shall be separated** from service, under Article 208 of the Political Code of 1902, with the nuance that if they are allowed to serve the sentence in the community, **Act 70 of 1963** and the rehabilitation process of Section 6.8 apply.

And **subsection 14**: on resigning, the Nominating Authority must notify you in writing whether it accepts the resignation or **rejects it because there are reasons warranting investigation of your conduct**. Resigning does not automatically close an investigation.

Finally, a line this guide does not cross: two of these subsections point to the **Act 1-2012 Government Ethics Act**, and this page does not explain what that statute says; it was not read for this guide. What is established is that **violating the Ethics Act is also a breach of Section 6.6**, through duty (i) and prohibition (d).