The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the Municipality's operations related to bids and quote-based purchases of construction materials, as well as the contracts and disbursements related to debris removal. A qualified opinion is issued when the noncompliances, individually or in the aggregate, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that the Municipality made purchases of construction materials and supplies without obtaining quotes from at least three suppliers. This situation had already been noted in Audit Report M-18-09 of 2017. Contrary to the regulations, the Municipality specified particular brands and models in several requisitions, a fact that undermines the reliability of the processes. In addition, the Finance director authorized for payment several disbursement vouchers for $36,752 without the information of who requested the materials and without the certifications of who received them.
From 2007 to 2014, the former mayor contracted for $1.5 million for the design, inspection, and construction of an Olympic swimming pool in the Guaydía ward of Guayanilla. At present, the pool is deteriorated, empty, and in a state of abandonment due to filtration problems, and it does not meet the dimensions required for Olympic training. This situation denotes a lack of planning and generates health and safety problems that entail additional costs.
The five-finding audit notes that Guayanilla's Internal Audit Unit did not carry out periodic audits from 2015 to 2018 in susceptible areas such as bids, purchases, disbursements, or accounting system procedures. A similar situation had been noted in Audit Report M-17-08 of 2016.
Our auditors identified that the bid files lacked evidence regarding: the analysis performed on the bidders' proposals, voting data, and summaries of the offers submitted. In addition, the Municipality had not prepared an inventory or a retention plan for public documents, and it sent the Monthly Report of Payrolls and Positions to the Office of the Comptroller with delays of up to one year.
The audit comments that Guayanilla had accumulated deficits in the Operational Fund of $868,504 and $1.5 million for fiscal years 2016 and 2017. This situation, which had been noted in Audit Report M-17-08, reduces the available resources and adversely affects the services that must be provided to citizens.
The Municipality has not recovered $52,959 for various items that were recommended in Report M-18-09 and has five civil lawsuits against it for $467,713, pending resolution by the courts.
The Report covers the period from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2018.
See Audit Report M-19-28.
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