The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico revealed that the Maritime Transportation Authority of Puerto Rico and the Island Municipalities (ATM) made an improper payment of $324,630 for the purchase of fuel for the vessels that provide service to Vieques and Culebra, despite the fact that said purchase did not have the required authorizations. In addition, the check for the payment of the fuel was falsified, with the digital signature of the auxiliary executive director of Administration and Finance who had held said position until the day before the check was issued.
The ATM did not have the approval of the Office of Management and Budget nor a formalized contract that justified the payment of the fuel. Nonetheless, the then executive director approved the requisitions and the voucher for payment and, on the other hand, the interim executive subdirector instructed the ATM accountant to issue the check not permitted by applicable law and regulations.
These acts, contrary to current law and regulations, could have configured crimes of improper intervention in government operations, fraud, illegal appropriation of identity and falsification of documents, among others. The investigation was referred to the consideration of the Secretary of Justice on October 12, 2021 who concluded, among others, that there was not sufficient cause to believe that the former executive director, the former interim executive subdirector and the ATM accountant had engaged in criminal conduct for the facts investigated. The Special Report recommends the Panel on the Independent Special Prosecutor to consider the result of the investigation, and the executive director of the Office of Government Ethics to take the pertinent actions in this regard.
See Audit Report CP-22-07.
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.
