The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Municipality of Manatí. A qualified opinion is issued when the instances of noncompliance, individually or in the aggregate, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that the Municipality did not request the corresponding licenses for three corporations contracted to provide refrigeration services, as the regulations in force require. In this regard, the auditors found that eight employees, two officers, one vice president, and four contractors of those companies had no license whatsoever. In addition, five employees and one of the officers had expired licenses. These three corporations also had contracts with nine municipalities, nine governmental entities, seven public corporations, and a campus of the University of Puerto Rico.
The audit notes that the Municipality contracted, for $564,111, five regular corporations not authorized to provide legal and air-conditioning maintenance services, as provided by the General Corporations Act. The Municipality did not verify that the contracted companies were professional corporations. This situation could cause the clauses of the formalized contracts to be declared void.
These situations were referred for the corresponding actions to the Secretary of Justice, the president of the Examining Board of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technicians of Puerto Rico, and the president of the Association of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technicians of Puerto Rico on December 5, 2019. To date, the situations were pending investigation.
The three-finding Report indicates that one of the corporations subcontracted the refrigeration technicians' service, contrary to what was provided in the contract. In addition, the Finance and Pre-intervention areas did not ensure that the corporations prepared the certification of work performed required by law.
The auditors found multiple deficiencies in the areas designated to preserve public documents. The presence of humidity and mold, as well as the absence of the public document disposal lists for 2018 and 2019, fosters the loss and deterioration of public files, and can affect the health of employees, among others.
Contrary to the laws and regulations in force, the Municipality kept six employees on detail assignment without written agreements. This situation can be detrimental, since there are no legal documents establishing the rights and obligations of the parties.
The audit also comments that, as of June 30, 2019, the Municipality had 282 temporary employees, after as long as 20 years had elapsed since their appointment. This figure constitutes 78% of the municipal employees who exceed the legal term of one year.
This report covers the period from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019.
See Audit Report M-21-03.
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