The Puerto Rico National Guard Institutional Trust shall have all the powers needed to carry out and implement the purposes and provisions of this chapter, including, but without it being understood as a limitation, the powers to:
(a) Adopt bylaws for the administration of its affairs and business and prescribe rules, regulations and norms with respect to the exercise of its functions and duties, including, but without being limited to the establishment of mechanisms to grant assistance for the payment of educational expenses, annuities, life and funeral insurance to the eligible active and retired members of the National Guard; establish the criteria and priorities for the selection of the persons eligible for the benefits established by this chapter and the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects, to be carried out or any other activity or purpose authorized by this chapter, and to determine the administrative structure needed to implement and operate the Puerto Rico National Guard Institutional Trust.
(b) Adopt an official seal and alter the same at its convenience.
(c) Have an office in the municipality of San Juan and in any other place it deems necessary.
(d) To sue and be sued on its own behalf and to complain and be complained against.
(e) Receive, administer and comply with the conditions and requirements, with respect to any gift, concession or donation of any property or money.
(f) Negotiate, grant and receive through cession, financing, and leasing contracts, and other contracts and instruments necessary or convenient for the exercise of the powers and functions conferred to the Puerto Rico National Guard Institutional Trust under this chapter, including contracts with persons, public corporations, municipalities and federal and Commonwealth government agencies. The local agencies are hereby authorized to execute contracts and, otherwise, cooperate with the Puerto Rico National Guard Institutional Trust to expedite the financing, acquisition, construction, leasing, cession, operation or maintenance of any project or activity.
(g) Acquire through purchase, lease, gift, or otherwise, obtain options for the acquisition or lease of any real or personal property, with or without improvements, encumbered or not, and rights on land, although inferior to the fee simple thereon for the construction, operation or maintenance of any project or activity that the Puerto Rico National Guard Institutional Trust deems necessary.
(h) Acquire and keep in effect, or cause the acquisition and effectiveness of adequate insurance to protect any project, including the operation thereof.
(i) Sell, lease, assign, transfer, convey, barter, mortgage or otherwise dispose of or encumber any project. It may likewise, lease, reacquire or otherwise obtain title or retain any project that the Puerto Rico National Guard Institutional Trust has previously sold, leased or otherwise transferred or conveyed or disposed of.
(j) Grant options for the purchase of any project or the renewal of any lease given by the Puerto Rico National Guard Institutional Trust with regard to any of its projects, under any advisable terms and conditions.
(k) Give as collateral or assign any moneys, revenues, rights or any other income and compensation pursuant to the provisions of the insurance policies or expropriations.
(l) Borrow money evidenced by bonds of the Puerto Rico National Guard Institutional Trust, in order to provide funds to pay all or any part of the cost of any project, any refinancing bonds, and to provide funds for the financing of the projects and facilities operated by the Post Exchanges of the Puerto Rico National Guard, including, if necessary, the financing required to keep an adequate inventory in the post exchanges.
(m) Mortgage or give as security for the payment of principal and interest on any bonds issued, or of any financing agreement made with respect to the same, any or all of the projects that were owned by it at that time, or were acquired afterwards, and to encumber the proceeds and receipts of any of the same and to assign or give as security the financing contract or contracts related to any portion or the totality of a project and any type of securities, liens or contractual rights granted by or on behalf of the debtor or any guarantor under the financing contract, including bonds, unsecured bonds, notes, whether secured or not, stocks, a surety of the financing contract or any other security contract and to assign or encumber the income received by virtue of any financing agreement or agreements.
(n) Construct, acquire, own, repair, maintain, extend, improve, refurbish, renew, furnish, equip or provide financing for the construction, acquisition, repairing, maintaining, extension, improvement, restoring, renewing, furnishing, and equipping of any project and to pay, all or any part of the cost thereof from the proceeds of the Puerto Rico National Guard Institutional Trust bonds or from any contribution, gift or donation, or from any other funds provided for such purposes.
(o) Fix, impose and collect rents, duties and other costs for the use of any project.
(p) Contract the services of consulting engineers, architects, lawyers, accountants, financial consultants, appraisers, actuaries and any other consultants and employees which, in the judgment of the Puerto Rico National Guard Institutional Trust may be required, and fix and pay their remuneration form the funds available for such purposes.
(q) Make and receive gifts for those purposes that the Board of Directors deems adequate and necessary to achieve the objectives of this chapter.
(r) Exercise the powers that have been conferred on it and perform any act or activity that is necessary, convenient or desirable to attain its purposes, including the transfer of resources between the three (3) funds, provided that it is needed to maintain its solvency and meet its obligations.
History —July 23, 1991, No. 23, § 10.