REGULATIONS FOR THE PAYMENT OF FEES TO THE TECHNICAL PERSONNEL OF PUBLIC WORKS, MINES, FORESTS, AND TELEGRAPHS OF THE ISLAND OF PORTO RICO. CHAPTER I.-AMOUNT OF THE FEES. IN THE SERVICE OF THE STATE. ARTICLE 1. The technical officials in the service of the State in the branches of Public Works, Mines, Forests, and Telegraphs of the Island of Porto Rico shall earn, as a reimbursement for the expenses which may be occasioned them by the duties of their office away from their ordinary residence, the fees which, for each class into which this service may be divided, are fixed for this purpose by the present Regulations, subject to the rules therein established. ART. 2. For the purposes of the present Regulations the service shall be classified as: Ordinary service. Service in temporary residence. Ordinary service shall include: In Public Works: Inspections of works to be kept in good order and repair. In Mines: Inspections of State and private mines, and the inspection of the police and security of mining works of all kinds. In Forests: Inspections of forests for the formation of plans for their use. In Telegraphs: Visits of inspection. Extraordinary service shall include: In Public Works: Inspections of new works and the labors in the field for projects and preliminary projects, travels, inspections, measurements, comparisons, and survey of the projects, the taking of data as a basis for condemnation proceedings, hydrological studies, and other similar labors. In Mines: Inspections, demarcations, and surveys and geological studies. In Forests: Projects, inspections, and construction of new lines. By service in temporary residence is understood that rendered by officers referred to in these Regulations in the following cases: First. When by superior order they are engaged in drawing some project in the locality in which they may have taken the data for the same. Second. When they have charge of the direction or supervision of isolated works distant from town and when they reside at the works. Third. When they have charge of important constructions and their presence is necessary at the works at specified times. By transfers shall be understood those which are made for the convenience of the service, and by superior order, from one place to another of the Island for the change of ordinary residence, which for each case is assigned to the officials by the provisions in force concerning this matter in each branch. ART. 3. For the collection of the fees fixed by these Regulations by the officials referred to, the latter shall be considered classified in five categories. There shall belong to the first category: In Public Works, Mines, and Forests: The Chief Engineers of first and second classes. There shall belong to the second category: In Public Works, Mines, and Forests: First and second Engineers. In Public Works, Mines, and Forests: The first and second Assistants. In Mines: The expert Assistants of first and second classes. In Telegraphs: The Chiefs and Officers of the stations and the Officers of the sections. There shall belong to the fourth category: In Public Works and Forests: The third and fourth Assistants. In Public Works: The Overseers. In Telegraphs: The Candidates. ART. 4. The fees in ordinary service shall consist of two partsone quota for personal expense for each day employed away from ordinary residence and the other quota for each kilometer traveled. In extraordinary service the payment shall be the expense of the trip going to and coming from the points in which the service is to be rendered, and in addition, a personal quota for each day employed in carrying out the duties away from the ordinary residence. In the same manner the expenses occasioned by the service in temporary residence and in transfers shall be paid. ART. 5. The amounts of the fees for each category and class of service shall be the following: In the extraordinary service, in the service of temporary residence, and in the transfers traveling expenses shall be paid, allowing a firstclass passage to the first and second category, a second class for the third and fourth categories, and a third class for the fifth category. In case there shall not be any existing means of transportation, the traveling expenses shall be paid according to the kilometric quota fixed for ordinary service. ART. 6. The Government, on the proposal of the Governor-General, in accord with the Chief of the respective service, may fix special fees for those services in which extraordinary circumstances, properly proved, shall demand it. These fees shall be fixed, keeping in mind the circumstances of the service and the category of the commissioner, and shall be collected, charged to the item in the budget corresponding to the nature of the service. ART. 7. Special services are understood, for the purpose of the payment of the fees referred to in the preceding article, to be: Commissions abroad. All those which are not expressly included among those actually designated in the present Regulations, and which by their exceptional circumstances can not be classified. SERVICES OF CORPORATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS. ART. 8. When by the Superior Authority of the Island there is ordered any report, appraisal, comparison, or investigation relative to provincial, municipal, or private services, the officials charged with these labors shall receive for those rendered away from their residence the fees fixed by Article 5 for extraordinary service. ART. 9. In official service of Corporations and individuals there shall not be received any fee whatsoever for office work. ART. 10. Expert officials in the service of the State who, after the proper authorization, render services or do work for provincial and municipal Corporations which do not oblige them to leave the place of their residence, may receive therefor a fixed fee, determined by the Governor-General, on the proposal of the President of the Corporation and the report of the Chief of the respective service. ART. 11. The members of the expert personnel of Public Works, Mines, Forests, and Telegraphs who shall pass to the exclusive service of Corporations or individuals, shall receive from either the salary and the fees established by the existing provisions, if there should be any, when there shall be no mutual agreement made therefor. CHAPTER II.-RULES FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE AMOUNTS. ART. 12. The kilometric fee shall not be paid if the distance from the residence to the place where the works are to be executed shall be less than 4 kilometers, for officials of the first four categories, and 6 kilometers, for those of the fifth. The quota for personal expenses shall not be paid when the distance from the point where the works are to be executed or to the residence of the expert agents shall be less than 4 kilometers, whatever may be their category. ART. 13. When on the same trip ordinary and extraordinary services are rendered, there shall only be collected for each day the fees for one of the classes of service, even though in the statement referred to by Article 20 both services shall be made to appear. ART. 14. The Chief of service who by superior order is carrying out a part of this service, may choose the fee corresponding to one of the two offices, but they shall never accumulate. ART. 15. Every individual who performs the duties of a category superior to his own shall receive for the service rendered the corresponding fee, after a declaration of the Authority with whom the Chiefs of the service are in direct communication, and of the latter for the employees of the subordinate personnel. ART. 16. In order that temporary residence may confer the right to the corresponding fee, it is an indispensable requisite that it must have been previously declared by the Superior Authority of the Island on the proposal of the Chief of the respective service. The drafting of a project in a locality in which the data for the same shall have been taken shall be understood to be the formation of rough drafts of plans which may serve as the basis for the correction of the data taken in the field. The last of the three cases specified in Article 2, in order to earn the temporary residence fee, refers to that in which part of the service requires the permanency of the officer charged therewith at the place of execution, as might happen in public works, in the building of a bridge, during the construction of the foundations. In these cases the temporary residence fees shall be received only during the period in which that part of the service referred to is being performed, with the condition of permanency above indicated. ART. 17. The fees for transfers shall be paid, supposing that the transfer shall take place by means of the most rapid and direct transportation. This fee shall not be paid when the transfer is made at the request of the interested party. CHAPTER III.-GENERAL PROVISIONS. ART. 18. All officers of the branches of Public Works, Mines, Forests, and Telegraphs shall keep a diary of operations, in which shall appear the days employed and the visits or any other works which they may execute, observations which they may have made, orders which they may have given, and whatever circumstances are worthy of being noted. The diary of operations of all the officers shall be inspected by their immediate Chiefs, who shall state on the first page the number of folios contained in the book, and shall rubricate each one of the pages. All officials during their visits shall note in the diaries of their subordinates the orders and instructions communicated to them, stating in default thereof their agreement with the remarks and notes contained in the diary. ART. 19. Every officer of those included in the present Regulations is obliged to report to his immediate Chief when he leaves for visits. of ordinary service, as well as when he returns. In extraordinary service they shall also periodically make a report of the progress of the works in their charge. ART. 20. The economic proof of the fees shall be made by means of monthly statements, in accordance with the form accompanying these Regulations. On the back of each statement of fees shall be inserted an extract from that part of the diary of operations mentioned in Article 28, which embraces the period referred to by the statement. ART. 21. The payment of fees for service of the State shall be made, charged to the credits designated in the chapters and articles of the budget to which the expense corresponds, and in accordance with the provisions in force concerning these matters in each branch, and also with the general conditions of Auditing. The provincial and municipal Corporations shall pay those that are proper in accordance with the existing provisions or those that for each case may be adopted by the competent Authority. ART. 22. The fees earned by reason of services in which two or more administrative entities are interested shall be paid, each one of the latter paying its proper part in the same relation as that in which they would contribute for the other expenses occasioned by such service. ART. 23. In case the works referred to in Article 11 should have to be made by any private person, the latter shall first deposit, where the Authority shall determine, an amount sufficient to cover the probable amount of the fees which have to be paid. ART. 24. The Governor-General of the Island shall be charged with deciding the doubts which might arise from the application of these Regulations, following the spirit of the rules which are laid down and hearing the Chief of the respective service. When a doubt has arisen, and the interested party does not agree with the decision of the Governor-General, he may appeal from it to the Colonial Secretary. Madrid, November 19, 1879. ALBACETE. Form of statement of fees referred to in Article 20 of these Regulations: |