The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Municipality of Naranjito related to the municipal cemetery. A qualified opinion is issued when the noncompliances, individually or in the aggregate, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that the crime of misappropriation of funds may have been committed by the person in charge of the Naranjito Municipal Cemetery. Contrary to the regulations, the person in charge performed collection functions for burials and exhumations that she coordinated directly with citizens and contractors.
The Municipality's Finance director certified that for fiscal years 2014 and 2015, $625 was recorded for exhumations and no burials or sale of headstones were recorded. However, our auditors verified that $115,150 should have been recorded for burials, exhumations, and the sale of headstones for that period. The citizens, employees, and contractors interviewed, and through sworn statements, indicated that the person in charge of the Cemetery bought the headstones for $30 and sold them for $60, and that for the various services she received the money directly and issued unofficial receipts without being authorized.
These findings were referred on October 10, 2018, to the Secretary of Justice and to the Executive Director of the Office of Government Ethics of Puerto Rico so that they take the appropriate measures. On February 2, 2012, the mayor of Naranjito referred to the then Secretary of Justice a copy of a Municipal Legislature report on irregularities in the operations of the Municipal Cemetery. In relation to Finding 1, on February 20 the mayor submitted to the Office of the Comptroller evidence of the disciplinary action against the person in charge of the municipal cemetery.
The three-finding audit also notes that, contrary to applicable law and regulations, the Cemetery does not have a distribution plan for graves, niches, and ossuaries, the exhumations were not performed under the direction of a funeral director, and periodic inspections were never carried out.
The report also evidences irregularities in the inventory control of the boxes for human remains received at the Cemetery, and purchases of these boxes were made for $5,775 without requesting three quotes from suppliers representative of the market. In addition, the Municipality formalized six contracts with four independent contractors for work at the Cemetery without establishing the indispensable requirements of the work, without recording the contracts in the Municipality's Registry of Contracts, and the files did not contain all the certifications or documents required in the contract itself.
The third and final Report of the Municipality of Naranjito covers the period from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2017.
See Audit Report M-19-27.
To view other published reports, visit our Audit Reports section.
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