The Comptroller of Puerto Rico issues an adverse opinion on the operations of the Office of Promotion and Marketing of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company. The examination conducted reveals that the operations related to the regulations, the advertising services, the disbursements, the filing of fiscal documents, and the plan required by Act 236-2010 were not carried out in accordance with the applicable law and regulations.
The five-finding Report points out that advertising services were paid for without formalizing purchase orders or contracts. From a sample of the $275.8 million disbursed from 2009 to 2016, it was identified that the purchase orders were prepared with delays of up to 592 days.
In addition, ads were placed in newspapers and magazines worth more than half a million dollars without including any of the official names of Puerto Rico, and the Company was unable to provide fiscal documentation or the media plans (Marketing Plan) prior to 2013.
The Operational Manual of the Promotion and Marketing Area of 2008 had not been updated as of 2016, and its directors did not comply with the reports they had to submit to the executive management, as required by the Manual. In addition, contrary to Act 18-1975 on Registries of Contracts, the Company issued 16 resolutions recognizing debts for $1.9 million without a contract having been formalized; this situation occurred from October 19, 2009 to March 26, 2010.
The audit points out that the Tourism Company did not comply with the Accountability and Execution of Government Programs Act of 2010, and its Budget Division lacks written rules for its operations.
The Report comments that there was an increase in occupancy in the lodgings endorsed by the Company and a lack of a registry of all the lodgings in Puerto Rico. In addition, the drop in the Island's position, from 53 to 55, in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index is due, among other things, to the absence of quality evaluations of tourism infrastructure and transportation, and to the fact that the Company did not include objectives or strategies to strengthen the global competitiveness subindices in the areas of safety, health and hygiene, international openness, tourism infrastructure, information technology, and price competitiveness.
See Audit Report CP-17-07.
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