The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion of the fiscal operations of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) related to professional and consulting services contracts, and the purchase of diesel fuel. A qualified opinion is issued when individual or combined noncompliance is significant, but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that the Office of Management and Budget made improper payments without a contract in place. From the sample examined, a payment of $2,732,221 was found to a private corporation for telecommunications services from March 31 to May 22, 2018 without a contract. In addition, the OMB paid $68,200 for rent to a private corporation to store the property of the Office of the Commissioner of Municipal Affairs between 2017 and 2018, without any contract in place.
The four-finding audit points out that the OMB paid $64,450 to a contractor, in excess of the maximum amount established in the contract and the amendment of $580,000. The contracted services were to obtain assistance related to the implementation of the Zero-Based Budgeting methodology for the entire government. A similar situation had been commented on in Audit Report DA-12-33 of October 24, 2011.
The Comptroller's auditors determined the lack of controls in the purchase of fuel such as the absence of a list of the names of the persons authorized to purchase fuel, a list of the OMB's official vehicles, and the verification of signatures and driver's license numbers of the authorized persons, among others. These situations, contrary to current regulations, could have allowed the improper use of public funds.
Contrary to Act 75-2019, Act of the Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Service, the OMB formalized three information technology contracts in 2019, without having been evaluated or recommended by the Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Services (PRITS) Office. This situation deprived PRITS of evaluating and determining whether they were in accordance with the Government's public policy and whether they did not duplicate operating costs.
The OMB did not submit the reports required by Act 66-2014, Special Act for the Fiscal and Operational Sustainability of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and by Act 3-2017, Act to Address the Economic, Fiscal and Budgetary Crisis to Guarantee the Financing of the Government of Puerto Rico which, among others, established a reduction of no less than 10% of the annual expenditure on purchased or professional services in each Executive Branch entity. The House of Representatives certified in 2019 that it received 33% of the reports, the Senate 67% and the Office of the Governor did not have evidence of any of the reports as of that date.
This Report covers the period from January 1, 2015 to February 28, 2021.
See Audit Report DA-22-07.
To see other published reports, visit our Audit Reports section.
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