The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issues a partially adverse opinion on the operations related to the construction of works, the purchases, and the disbursements in the Municipality of Utuado.
The 14-finding Report reveals that the Municipality used $2.5 million to purchase a 22-acre farm with funds from an agreement it had with National Parks for the construction of a Coliseum, even though it already had a 10-acre farm that National Parks had transferred to it. Moreover, our auditors identified that for three years the concrete company that sold the 22-acre farm to the Municipality used it free of charge for its business.
In addition, the Municipality of Utuado disbursed more than $1 million on three useless projects: improvements to the Slaughterhouse that is abandoned, deteriorated, and has been vandalized; improvements to the Multipurpose Center of the Ángeles ward that is disused and without electrical service; and the construction of an Elderly Center in the Caguana ward that is abandoned, without electrical service, and with high-tension cables over the structure. (See photos in Exhibit 2)
The audit notes that $143,816 was paid for services rendered outside the term of a contract, a contractor was paid $3,500 for a service it never performed, and the channeling of the Los Pinos creek ($587,841) and the improvements to the Multipurpose Center of the Ángeles ward ($242,323) were carried out without the permits from the Permit Management Office.
Our auditors detected multiple deficiencies regarding the constitution —without the members required by law— of the Bidding Board, the final plans and other documents of construction works were not found, and the file areas were deteriorated (see photos in Exhibit 3). In addition, contrary to Act 81-1991, the funds of the Head Start Program were not recorded in the Mechanized Uniform Accounting System (SUCM).
The Report also indicates that, as of June 2015, eight civil lawsuits totaling $982,139 remained pending resolution by the courts, and as of that date the Municipality had also not recovered more than $5.9 million recommended by audit reports M-10-25, M-10-27, and M-14-13.
The Report covers the period from January 1, 2011 to June 30, 2015.
See Audit Report M-17-27
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