Draft bill 101.

Summary.

The draft bill provides for review of the salary scale for criminalistics and forensic science professionals every 3 years, with a view to setting an increase linked to the statistical database of professional salaries. The review would be carried out by the Criminalistics and Forensic Sciences Technical Board (Junta Técnica de Criminalística y Ciencias Forenses), which would be regulated by executive decree. The provision thus connects periodic review of the scale to statistical information on professional salaries and assigns the review to that Board.

Professionals working in the public sector would be prohibited from undertaking private work. Teaching, also described in the text as education, would be the only additional work permitted. This restriction would apply to the professionals covered by the draft bill while they work in the public sector.

Once the proposed law enters into force, criminalistics and forensic science professionals covered by it who are practicing their profession would be placed in their corresponding category. Placement would require prior certification by the entity’s Institutional Human Resources Office (Oficina Institucional de Recursos Humanos) or the appropriate certifying official. Certification would therefore precede the assignment of a professional category to those already practicing.

The draft bill also assigns the Criminalistics and Forensic Sciences Technical Board responsibility for drawing up the salary ranking used to recognize the salary scale for all criminalistics and forensic science professionals. The scale would begin to apply in the next fiscal period after promulgation of the proposed law in the Official Gazette. It would have no retroactive effect. Under the draft bill, these professionals could under no circumstances receive a salary below the amount stipulated in the proposed law. The provision distinguishes the law’s entry into force from the later point at which the salary scale would apply.

Among the transitional and final provisions, Article 28 again refers to the Criminalistics and Forensic Sciences Technical Board and the professionals identified in the proposed law. Article 29 provides that professionals who, from promulgation until one year afterward, have 12 years of documented experience in a criminalistics specialty and hold a postgraduate or master’s degree could obtain professional certification regardless of their bachelor’s degree, following evaluation by that Board. Article 31 provides that the proposed law would enter into force on the day following its promulgation.

The public bodies connected with these provisions are the Criminalistics and Forensic Sciences Technical Board, the Institutional Human Resources Office and public sector entities employing the professionals concerned. The provisions could be of interest to criminalistics and forensic science professionals, those who teach, and applicants seeking professional certification under the transitional route.