1st- To propose to the Supreme Government the telegraphers who are to serve the offices, to monitor their performance, to ensure that their responsibility is made effective, to transfer them from one office to another when it suits the service, to suspend and even dismiss them when, in his view, there is just cause, to impose fines of one to ten colones for minor faults in the exercise of their functions. The proceeds from the fines shall form part of the telegraph funds.
2nd- To ensure that his subordinates fulfill their respective duties with complete exactness, and to give them whatever orders and instructions the good service of the telegraph demands, whose lines and offices he shall inspect in a timely manner, personally or through the principal telegrapher.
3rd- To ensure that the lines are maintained in the best possible state, and the offices in order and perfect working condition, employing the appropriate means for this.
4th- To have under his charge, under his responsibility, the central warehouse of machines, tools, and equipment belonging to the telegraph, and to ensure that the tools and equipment needed are sent in a timely manner to all offices, keeping the respective account for each shipment.
5th- To request from the Government, with due anticipation, that the Directorate be provided with the telegraphic material, machines, batteries, instruments, tools, furniture, etc., etc., that are indispensable to maintain the lines in good condition, and for the service and arrangement of the telegraph offices.
6th- To prepare each month a general statement of the revenues and expenditures occurring during the previous month and to forward it to the respective secretariat.
7th- To prepare at the end of each year the general budget of telegraph expenses for the following year and to forward it to the Government in due form for its approval.
8th- To address civil and military authorities, requesting their assistance, should it be needed, for the good service of the telegraph, and to inform the Government so that it may order what is appropriate, regarding faults or negligence of the authorities with respect to telegraphic service.
9th- To temporarily delegate his powers when necessity demands it, to the Secretary or to the General Inspector of Lines, reporting this to the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Interior.
(Thus amended by law Nº 3 of October 26, 1929).
10- To transmit and dispatch all reports on the telegraph branch requested of him by the Government, as well as to inform the latter of the abnormal interruption of any line and its causes, and to remove these with the greatest diligence, also giving notice as soon as communication is reestablished.
11- To propose to the Government all improvements that should be made in the branch, and to fulfill and ensure the exact fulfillment, in exceptional situations of public disturbances or war, of the instructions regarding the service communicated to him by the Secretariat of Interior, and especially those established in Article 361 of the Criminal Code (Código Penal), under the penalties established therein.
12- To prepare, from the tenth to the fifteenth of each month, the account of the expenses incurred in the previous month for the maintenance of the line, lighting, and office supplies, and to forward it to the respective secretariat for payment.
13- To give the strictest compliance, in whichever part corresponds to him, to all obligations contracted by the Government by reason of telegraphic conventions concluded or to be concluded with those of other states.
14- To deliver on the fifteenth day of each month to the National Treasury, the proceeds of the telegraph from the previous month, including in this delivery the fines he may have imposed on his subordinates during the aforementioned month.
15- To consult the Government on cases, regarding the service, that offer doubt or that are not provided for in these regulations.
16- To render at the end of each fiscal year, before the corresponding authority, the general account of revenues and expenditures occurring in the telegraph administration, for legal purposes.
17- To give to the Secretariat of Interior and Development, at the end of each fiscal year, a report of what was done in the same, in relation to the telegraph and its condition, and to the Secretariat of Finance, of the revenues and expenditures of the enterprise in the same year.
18- (Repealed).
19- (Repealed).
20- (Repealed).
(The three previous subsections repealed by law Nº 3 of October 26, 1929).
Principal Office