The Comptroller of Puerto Rico issues a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Municipality of Hatillo related to fuel purchases and the acquisition of vehicle parts and spares. A qualified opinion is issued when the instances of noncompliance, individually or together, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that the Municipality overpaid $7,514 for 8,108 liters of gasoline relative to what was dispensed by the garage and to the maximum capacity of the vehicles' tanks, with altered original receipts. Our auditors observed that the handwritten alterations to the originals increased the quantity of liters dispensed and the total price of the fuel.
The Institute of Forensic Sciences certified that of 133 original receipts, 110 were altered by the addition of strokes and overwriting with the same type of ink and handwriting. In this situation, the offenses of aggravated misappropriation and fraud typified in the Penal Code of Puerto Rico may have been configured. This finding was referred on February 7, 2018, to the Secretary of Justice for the corresponding action.
The audit also notes that the improper payments were due to the lack of adequate control on the part of the pre-intervention officer and the director of Finance of Hatillo. For example, most of the employees did not deliver a copy of the gasoline receipts to their supervisor, and the Municipality could only provide us with 22% of the yellow copies of the original receipts.
Our auditors identified that the garage to which the bid had been awarded on six occasions billed $1,464 in excess of the profit margin established in the bid. The garage used invoices from wholesalers when fuel prices were higher and the profit margin was greater. The dates of those invoices did not correspond to the dates on which the fuel had been dispensed to the Municipality.
The Report covers the period from January 1, 2011, to June 30, 2013.
See Audit Report M-18-35.
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