The Comptroller of Puerto Rico issues a favorable opinion with exceptions on the purchases made by the Central Purchasing Office of the Department of Education. For the audited period, the Department recorded 17,979 purchase orders for $201.4 million.
The audit reveals that the Department of Education failed to comply with the rules and procedures established for the handling of property in the closure, consolidation, and reorganization of schools. As of May 31, 2015, the Department had closed 72 community schools and was never able to provide our auditors with the Equipment Disposal Certification.
In addition, contrary to federal regulations (Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirementes for Federal Awards, Final Rule – 2013), the Department was unable to provide our auditors with the detail of all the training –residential workshops– offered, nor a breakdown of the expenses incurred for each workshop on contracting, hotel costs, meals, or equipment rental. This situation could cause the Federal Government to require the return of the allocated funds, which for fiscal years 2013 and 2014 amounted to $13.6 million.
The Report also reveals that technology equipment and materials, servers, laptops, notebooks, ipads, tablets, and others were acquired for $222,319 without any use. The reasons given are that the personnel were not trained, did not have funds for technical assistance, or did not have enough time to use it. (See photos in Appendix 5)
In a sample of the purchase orders, our auditors identified that in 83% the needs assessment was not found, in 63% they did not have the approval of two officials, and in 50% the acquisition of technological equipment was not approved by the Office of Information Systems and Technological Support for Teaching (OSIATD). In fact, 31 desktop computers were acquired through a request for quotes, and it was found that, contrary to Regulation 7040 on the acquisition of goods, the selected supplier had sent two quotes with different amounts.
The seven-finding Report points out multiple situations with the payments of purchase orders, such as: payments without prior intervention, without being identified with the voucher number, or unsigned.
See Audit Report DA-17-22.
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