Press Releases

The Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Agricultural Incentives Area of the Administration for the Development of Agricultural Enterprises (ADEA). A qualified opinion is issued when the instances of noncompliance, individually or in the aggregate, are significant but not pervasive.

The Report reveals that, as of April 30, 2018, the administrator of ADEA had not promulgated written rules or procedures to govern the operations related to the payment of the Coffee Harvest Bonus. For the payment of this incentive, ADEA used the Regulation for the payment of the Annual Bonus, which had not been updated to incorporate the 2001, 2009 and 2015 amendments to Act No. 42 of June 19, 1971.

This deficiency creates the environment to commit errors and irregularities. In fact, our auditors detected that, from a sample of 25 disbursements of the Annual Bonus, there were overpayments in 68% of the cases. From 2014 to 2018, ADEA disbursed $12.7 million in annual bonuses.

In addition, it publishes multiple deficiencies with the Incentives Program for the Development of the Coffee Industry. For example, as of April 30, 2018, the rules had not been amended in accordance with the changes issued in 2009 through Administrative Order OA-2009-27. From the examination performed, disbursements without invoices, vouchers redeemed after the expiration date, vouchers with altered expiration dates were identified, and the Agricultural Incentives Area of ADEA did not record the redeemed vouchers in ORACLE. These situations do not allow effective control over the incentives granted for the acquisition of fertilizer for coffee and the payment of the fertilizer suppliers.

The Report covers the period from July 1, 2013 to April 30, 2018, and is the fifth and final report of ADEA.

See Audit Report DA-19-07.

To see other published reports, visit our Audit Reports section.