The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issues a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations related to the motor vehicles, the asphalt purchases and the inventories and inspection of the materials sheds, among others, of the Mayagüez Regional Office of the Department of Transportation and Public Works. A qualified opinion is issued when the noncompliances, individually or together, are significant but not pervasive. The Mayagüez Regional Office serves the municipalities of Añasco, Las Marías, Mayagüez, Maricao, Hormigueros, San Germán, Sabana Grande, Cabo Rojo, Lajas, Yauco and Guánica.
The Report reveals that for fiscal years 2014 to 2016, no information or documents were found that evidenced the proper use of 94% of the asphalt collected by 9 of the 11 municipalities served by the Mayagüez Regional Office, in accordance with the authorization letters issued by the regional director. This type of situation prevents maintaining adequate control of the use of the asphalt and fosters its being used for other purposes not permitted by law.
The one-finding audit also comments that the Mayagüez Regional Office identified 119 construction and permanent improvement projects for $32.5 million necessary to improve the safety and conditions of the state highways. However, as of September 29, 2016, the Regional Office had not received the fund allocations due to the Government's fiscal crisis.
During a visit by our auditors to the nine sheds for materials and equipment of the Regional Office, the lack of maintenance was verified. The photos published in Exhibit 1 show these structures covered with weeds, deteriorated and without controls to prevent vandalism. In addition, in an inspection of the surroundings of the Regional Office, motor vehicles, machinery, heavy equipment and other useless and unserviceable equipment were identified for which no steps had been taken for their final disposal (see photos in Exhibit 2).
The Report covers the period from July 1, 2013 to February 28, 2017.
See Audit Report DA-18-13.
To see 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.
