The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the operations related to the construction and maintenance of the Schools for the 21st Century Modernization Program of the Infrastructure Financing Authority of Puerto Rico (AFI). A qualified opinion is issued when the instances of noncompliance, individually or in the aggregate, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals deficiencies in the change orders, since work was performed and completed before being authorized. For example, at the Federico Degetau II School in Aibonito, repair work was begun 65 days before AFI approved the directive, and the work was completed 231 days before AFI approved the change order. At the Santiago Rivera García School in Yauco, modernization work was also begun before authorizing the change orders, which were approved between 11 and 421 consecutive days after the work began. This information, confirmed by engineers and supervisors of the projects, is contrary to the Supplementary Conditions of the contracts and to the Uniform General Conditions for Public Works Contracts, which establish that the contractor must not perform any work until the change order is granted.
The four-finding audit notes that the contractor of the Federico Degetau II School certified that it completed the project 613 days after the required date. In addition, the school began its school year 641 days before having the occupancy permit. This situation posed a school safety risk and could have caused automatic orders for the cessation of the School's use to be issued, among others.
The Comptroller's auditors identified that the contractor of the Federico Degetau II School did not submit, nor did AFI require, the Performance and Payment Bonds for $106,980 for the infrastructure conservation phase, as established in the contract. This situation could have had adverse consequences and caused unnecessary risks to AFI, by being deprived of the guarantees in the event of claims.
The Report discloses that AFI does not have a registry of authorized signatures of the persons in charge of pre-auditing, recording, and approving the payment certifications, nor of the internal and external contractors and AFI employees authorized to sign the Construction Certification for Payment. This situation, attributed to the lack of regulation, prevented the auditors from verifying the authorization of the signatures.
Contrary to the regulations in force, the deficiency list (punch list) of buildings B, C, and the parking area of the Santiago Rivera School was not located, nor did AFI furnish it for examination. This list must be completed or corrected by the contractor before final payment. This situation prevents AFI from exercising adequate control over the filing of the construction documents.
The audit comments that 187 days after the construction was accepted as completed in 2013, the director of the Federico Degetau II School notified the then-Secretary of Education about the cracks, water leaks, and paint peeling detected in the project still under warranty. It was not until 2017 and 2018 that AFI carried out improvement work for $616,752. The director of AFI's Engineering Department indicated that he did not file claims with the contractor because the warranty had expired (see photos in Exhibit 2 of the Report).
This second and final report of AFI covers the period from July 1, 2010 to December 31, 2018.
See the Audit Report CP-21-04.
To view other published reports, visit our Audit Reports section.
Some documents on this page are saved in PDF format.
To view these documents, you must have the following free program installed.
