The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion of the fiscal operations of the Bureau of Forensic Sciences of the Department of Public Safety of Puerto Rico. A qualified opinion is issued when the individual or aggregate noncompliances are significant, but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that up to 36 years have elapsed without the Criminalistics Laboratory examining some 76,128 cases. The Comptroller's auditors found that the Firearms section had 41,918 firearms and projectile cases unanalyzed, the DNA/Serology forensic laboratory had 2,156 cases of which 2,245 were for sexual assault unanalyzed, and the controlled substances section had 16,243 cases unanalyzed, among others. This situation, contrary to Act 20-2017, of the Department of Public Safety of Puerto Rico, has deprived law and order agencies of the result of the forensic science and criminology examinations, in the investigation, clearing and filing of criminal cases.
The 10-finding audit notes that the Bureau had 2,156 cases pending determination of the cause, manner and circumstances of death. In addition, the Toxicology Laboratory had 1,848 samples of biological tissues and fluids pending analysis, according to the Report of pending toxicology cases as of October 15, 2018. This situation may encourage that, in cases of persons suspected of a crime, they cannot be criminally prosecuted for lack of evidence.
The Report reveals the finding of 13,382 DNA samples unanalyzed since December 2013. This situation encourages the Data Bank not to be up to date and deprives federal and state entities of up-to-date information that may help in the clearing of a crime.
The Board of Directors did not prepare or submit to the governor or the Legislative Assembly from 2015 to 2017 the annual reports on the operations of the Institute. Neither the then commissioner nor the interim commissioners submitted to the secretary of Public Safety the 2018 annual report on the operations of the Bureau.
The audit reveals the lack of collection efforts, deficiencies with accounts receivable and conflicting functions by the person in charge of collection. As of May 14, 2018, 762 accounts for $542,501 remained pending collection, but the clerk 1 did not perform the corresponding efforts. In fact, from 2016 to 2017, a clerk 1 performed the conflicting functions of auxiliary collection, pre-intervention, invoice preparation and registration for collection. A similar situation had been commented on in Audit Report DB-08-22 of May 15, 2008.
The Report identifies multiple control failures in the collections area such as: the absence of a physical inventory of the blank official receipt books, the fact that these books are not kept by an officer unrelated to the collection function, and the fact that a clerk 1 does not complete the form indicated by the Collections Regulation. In addition, the last annual physical report that was performed dates from 2008, and a certification of emergency disposal of 573 property units affected by a diesel spill did not have the authorized signatures.
Other control failures were recorded in the use of the motor vehicles in which the reconciliation of mileage vs fuel consumption was not performed, nor was a schedule established for the monthly maintenance of the vehicles. In addition, the documents to confiscate belongings (money, watches, screens, cell phones or wallets) of the claimed corpses lacked information such as: the name of the deceased, date of receipt or the value of the belongings.
This Report covers the period from January 1, 2015 to June 30, 2019.
See Audit Report DA-21-12.
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