The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issues a partially adverse opinion on the operations related to the purchases and disbursements of the Municipality of Cataño.
The eight-finding Report reveals that deviations from provisions of law and regulations occurred in the repair work on the roof of the Marketplace and in the acquisition of goods and services for which the three required quotes were not obtained. In addition, 86 service purchases for $413,886 were paid for which at least three quotes were not obtained, and the authenticity of 11 quotes that had nonexistent addresses could not be verified.
The Municipality bought used heavy equipment in Orlando, Florida for $277,583 without having requested quotes from local suppliers or from suppliers outside Puerto Rico. Nor did the heavy equipment suppliers issue the equipment warranty certificates.
Our auditors identified expenses of $3.5 million (from 2010 to 2014), outside the standards of usefulness, modesty and necessity that govern the use of public funds in the face of a precarious fiscal situation. During that period the Municipality donated $622,000 to sports teams and other associations, and spent $2.3 million on festivals, patron saint festivities, advertising expenses and others. The municipal deficit for those years increased from $6 to $14 million.
The audit points out, among other things, that the Municipality paid $16,373 in interest and penalties for the delay in paying the Retirement System and the Federal Internal Revenue Service; authorized a promoter to use the municipal property of the Waterfront without formalizing written contracts and without the approval of the Municipal Legislature; and acquired goods and services without issuing purchase orders.
See Audit Report M-17-19
To see other published reports, visit our Audit Reports section.
Some documents on this page are saved in PDF format.
To view these documents, you must have the following free program installed.
