The Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly is considering Senate Bill (PS) 1247, which would require real-time GPS monitoring of official government vehicles’ location, routes, and use, while raising fines for improper use from $100 to as much as $5,000 per infraction. The bill, to be implemented via a satellite tracking system operated by the General Services Administration (ASG), would ban using or keeping government fleet vehicles for personal, family, business, or partisan political purposes.
It would also penalize tampering with, disabling, or blocking the GPS system, and falsifying travel logs. The measure seeks to repeal Law 60-2014, which the bill’s text says is outdated because it relies on rigid workday schedules, physical vehicle handovers, and manual documentation that no longer fit government operations, particularly for agencies providing essential services.
The bill cites a recent Puerto Rico Supreme Court ruling in Office of Government Ethics (OEG) v. Elí Díaz Atienza, in which the court found that returning an official vehicle to an alternate facility of the same agency did not constitute improper personal benefit, as the OEG had unsuccessfully argued. The bill’s text states current law inadequately addresses the needs of agencies delivering critical public services.