The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Senate of Puerto Rico related to professional and consulting services contracts. A qualified opinion is issued when noncompliances, individually or together, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that 47% of the invoices paid for professional and consulting services contracts did not contain a detailed and specific description of the services offered by the contractors in the reports of work performed. In addition, no document related to the work performed by the contractors could be located, nor could the Senate provide evidence, in 23% of the invoices evaluated.
The contracted services were related to labor and federal matters, administrative and communication advice, among others. The Senate granted 1,899 contracts and 604 amendments from 2013 to 2018 for $42,413,901.
The two-finding audit notes that the services rendered by three contractors in the Office of Governmental Affairs of San Juan and Mayagüez, for $144,000, are functions already offered by Senate employees. This situation is contrary to Regulation 8, Code of Ethics and Parameters for the Contracting of Professional and Consulting Services of the Senate of Puerto Rico of 2010. In addition, a similar situation had been commented on in Audit Report DA-12-80 of June 20, 2012.
This second report on the Senate of Puerto Rico covers the period from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2018.
See Audit Report DA-21-02.
To see other published reports, visit our Audit Reports section.
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