The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Manatí Driver Service Center (CESCO) of the Driver Services Directorate (DISCO) of the Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP). A qualified opinion is issued when the instances of noncompliance, individually or in the aggregate, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals losses amounting to $582,597 for 8,800 expired tickets that had not been collected as of October 30, 2018, because they had not been sent to DISCO to be recorded in the DTOP System. The auditors also found 2,601 issued tickets that had not been sent to DISCO but had not yet expired.
The three-finding audit notes multiple deficiencies in the document storage facilities related to the daily motor-vehicle and driver transactions, such as: cancellation of fines and liens, license renewals, and transfers of title, among others. For example, the CESCO storage facility lacks an employee for document control, there are no written rules for the receipt and dispatch of documents, and it has no smoke detectors. In the storage space provided by the lessor, conditions were found to be dirty, without air, the door does not close, and the director does not have the keys nor control access — the lessor does. (see photos in Annex 1 of the Report). In the rolling storage facility, there is no inventory of the boxes and the documents got wet and are illegible. (see photos in Annex 2 of the Report).
These situations do not allow for adequate and effective control of the documents, foster the disappearance of files, and do not allow responsibilities to be assigned in the event of loss.
Contrary to Act 230, the Accounting Act of Puerto Rico, the clerk I performed conflicting duties since, in addition to safeguarding the valuables, she received them, stored them, dispatched them, and conducted the physical inventories. Among the valuables safeguarded were 20,000 inspection certificates, 5,700 registration stickers, and 3,204 license plates, among others.
In addition, in the dispatch of valuables we identified an absence of data on quantities, a lack of signatures of the employees or officials who received the valuables, and the lack of the Request. We attribute these situations to the fact that the officials who acted as directors of CESCO departed from the regulatory provisions and did not promulgate the internal rules needed to maintain custody and control of the valuables at CESCO.
This Report covers the period from January 1, 2015 to May 31, 2019.
See Audit Report DA-21-01.
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