The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Municipality of Aguas Buenas. A qualified opinion is issued when the noncompliances, individually or in the aggregate, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that Aguas Buenas paid $121,601 for work not performed by the contractor in the construction of the Comprehensive Community Development and Recreation Center in the Bairoa ward, such as the installation of 443 linear feet of piping or the construction of curbing. In May 2017 the Municipality accepted the project in its entirety, for which $3.4 million had been disbursed.
In addition, the contractor performed work for $164,479 through purchase orders, without first submitting them for the approval of the Bidding Board, and without formalizing amendments to the contract. The municipal officials also did not provide the bid file related to the construction of the project.
The five-finding audit notes that the Municipality did not obtain the permit from the Office of Permit Management for the construction of the first phase of the Comprehensive Center or for the remodeling of the Samuel "Sammy" Rodríguez Coliseum. In fact, even though the Coliseum did not have the construction permit, two engineers billed for its inspection and supervision. This situation was referred on June 12, 2018 to the president of the College of Engineers of Puerto Rico so that he takes the appropriate actions.
The Report evidences that the Municipality paid $392,200 for the design of plans that had no use. Contrary to Act 81-1991 of Autonomous Municipalities, the mayor contracted these services for the design of a bridge in the La Charca sector of the Mulas ward without having the funds available.
The audit reveals multiple internal control deficiencies, such as the fact that the credits for the payment of six contracts and 25 amendments of goods and services for $4.5 million were not obligated at the time of their granting, delays of up to six months in submitting the contracts to the Office of the Comptroller, or the provision of services without having formalized a contract. In addition, the municipal officials did not provide for examination 13 disbursement vouchers and their supporting documents for $238,780 issued from July 2009 to November 2016.
The Report comments that Aguas Buenas did not address the recommendations of Audit Report M-13-28 of 2013 to recover $34,272.
The Report of Aguas Buenas is the second and covers the period from January 1, 2014 to June 30, 2017.
See Audit Report M-19-23.
To view 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.
