The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Municipality of Aguada. A qualified opinion is issued when noncompliance, individually or in the aggregate, is significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that the Municipality disbursed $259,630 for the design of the plans for the Puerta del Descubrimiento, the Plaza del Descubrimiento, the Fuente del Descubrimiento, the Centro del Descubrimiento, the Plaza del Pescador and the Plaza de Festivales, among others, which served no purpose since the projects were not built. This situation was due to the fact that the former mayor did not plan for or take into account the viability of these projects, nor did the Municipality have the funds for their development.
The seven-finding audit notes that the acting mayors did not submit two settlement agreements to the municipal legislature for consideration before submitting the offers to the Court. In this way, a lawsuit for political discrimination was settled for $100,000 and a lawsuit for violation of civil and constitutional rights was settled through a private agreement with the Court.
The Municipality did not submit to the Contract Registry of the Office of the Comptroller four contracts and 13 amendments granted for the Rio Grande Sport Complex and the Plaza del Descubrimiento projects. In addition, it submitted the Monthly Payroll and Position Reports to the Office of the Comptroller, up to a year later, outside the term established by the law and regulations in force.
The auditors found that the Municipality ceded two properties to nonprofit entities without the authorization of the Municipal Legislature, and one of them was ceded verbally without a written contract. In addition, neither the acting Finance directors nor the property officer investigated 87 accidents involving 60 municipal vehicles from 2014 to 2017.
Contrary to Act 81-1991 on Autonomous Municipalities, the Municipality did not maintain control over the distribution and apportionment of 6,550 tickets with a value of $47,512 for general admission to the men's and women's basketball games of 2016 and 2017. Aguada had formalized two contracts with the Superior Basketball League for the free use of the Ismael "Chavalillo" Delgado Coliseum in exchange for providing complimentary tickets to the Municipality.
From 2014 to 2016, Aguada disbursed $115,812 to two contractors for heavy equipment repairs. In this regard, the audit revealed that Aguada does not have regulations for the contracting of mechanical and equipment repair services, and that this situation does not allow uniform processes to be maintained in the contracting of these services.
The audit notes that the Municipality notified the Department of Justice, the Office of Government Ethics and the executive director of the Municipal Revenue Collection Center (CRIM) of an appropriation of $7,395 in public funds and falsification of documents by a municipal employee.
The Municipality of Aguada established in 2013 several measures to address the fiscal crisis such as: the reduction of the salary of the mayor, aides and directors of administrative units, as well as the reduction of the work day for employees. In 2015, they lifted the reduction of the work day and restored the regular work day.
As of June 30, 2017, nine civil lawsuits for $9.1 million were pending resolution by the Courts. In addition, the Municipality did not address the recommendation of audit reports M-13-19 of 2013 and M-16-36 of 2016 to recover $68,618 for various concepts.
This second and final report of Aguada covers the period from January 1, 2014 to June 30, 2017.
See Audit Report M-20-13.
To see 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.
