The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issues an adverse opinion on the examination of a professional services contract that was formalized to obtain the reimbursement of credits for lands acquired through a Cooperation Agreement between the DRNA and the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
The one-finding Report reveals that the DRNA improperly paid $114,980 to a Consultant for work he did not complete. The tasks contracted in 2011 required, among other things, that the Consultant gather information and document the acquisition of the real properties: Río Antón Ruiz in Humacao, Río Cibuco in Vega Baja, Río Grande de Arecibo, Río Manatí in Barceloneta, and Río Fajardo. The Consultant had to prepare a management and case documentation plan that the DRNA would submit to the Corps of Engineers so it could evaluate the lands and their likelihood of being acquired. In this way, the Corps of Engineers would provide 75% of the value of the acquired land and the DRNA would contribute 25%.
Our auditors evidenced that the Consultant did not complete, perform, or process the procedures to claim the credits from the Corps of Engineers. In addition, the Consultant did not have the experience or the appropriate personnel to carry out the work. Moreover, the Director of Assets acted negligently in certifying and authorizing the disbursement of $114,980 for work that she understood to be deficient.
The audit recommends that the Secretary of Justice and the Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources evaluate this finding and determine whether a recovery action against the Consultant is warranted.
On the other hand, the Report comments that regulations 6213 and 8143 related to the use of waters and to the charge for the use of natural resources should be amended. In this way, the retroactive computation of the charge for the use of waters without a franchise or with an expired franchise would be regulated.
The Report covers the period from January 1, 2011 to June 30, 2015.
See Audit Report DA-17-30.
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.
