The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion of the fiscal operations of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico. A qualified opinion is issued when noncompliances, individually or together, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that payments were made for services rendered contrary to the regulations. From an examined sample of the invoices presented between 2013 and 2019, payments were detected to two contractors who provided services simultaneously in the Office of the President's Advisors and in a Representative's office. In addition, the auditors found failures in the pre-intervention process, in labor reports without a detailed description, in invoices without a labor report, in invoices delivered with delays of up to 16 months, and in invoices with incomplete information.
These situations prevent verifying the correctness of the disbursements and may cause errors in the payment processing, among others. The Report recommends the administrator of the House to ensure that the director of Finance and Budget exercises effective supervision over accounts payable, to ensure that an adequate pre-intervention is performed and to evaluate the recovery of $7,950 paid to the contractors.
The two-finding audit notes that the House granted 40% of its contracts and 46% of its amendments to eight contractors to perform functions similar to positions included in the Classification and Compensation Plan, Administrative Offices, approved in 1998. In addition, in 19% of the invoices examined, services were paid to subcontracted persons without the prior authorization of the president. These situations may give rise to the payment of higher fees than would correspond through salaries, and could foster the subcontractors having access to confidential information without having the corresponding approvals.
The Report comments that 40% of the contracts examined and 100% of the amendments verified contained the clause that indicates: “any other service that may be entrusted to it,” in the description of the services to be rendered. In this regard it is recommended that, should any other service be required of the contractor as the clause indicates, they ensure that what is requested is in accordance with the contract, that the contractor has the academic preparation, experience and skills to perform what is requested of it, and that they include in their invoices the detailed description of the services rendered.
This second report of the House of Representatives covers the period from January 1, 2013 to January 31, 2020.
See Audit Report DA-22-10.
To view other published reports, visit our Audit Reports section.
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