The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Municipality of Quebradillas. A qualified opinion is issued when noncompliances, individually or together, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that the Municipality invested $350,000 in equipment and parts for the Piratas Speedway & Fun Park recreational park in 2016 that have not been of use. The 36 go-karts, 15 spinning cars, 218 batteries, and other related equipment were stored in a building leased to the Industrial Development Company. (see Appendix 1 of the Report)
In addition, as of March 18, 2019, the Municipality had not used $360,298 of federal funds from the Community Development Block Grant for the construction of the project. These situations are due to the fact that the equipment was acquired without having the necessary facilities, and to the lack of adequate planning.
The six-finding audit notes that the Municipality had to pay $2,265 in surcharges for delays in the collection of vehicles and heavy equipment at the dock. This purchase was made in a bidding process in the United States. A similar situation had been commented on in Audit Report M-16-46 of 2016.
The auditors found a lack of adequate control in the process of the disbursements of the Corporation created in 2015 that administers the Water Park and the mini golf La Guarida del Pirata. For example, disbursements were made without the two required signatures, quotes were not obtained from at least three suppliers, and cash checks were issued instead of in favor of the supplier. In addition, contrary to the Operations Manual of 2016, deposits of the collections were made with delays and withdrawals of the cash collected in the parks were made.
The Report publishes multiple deficiencies related to the handling and control of the property. From 2016 to 2018, the annual physical inventories of the Corporation's property were not conducted and a record of all property acquired or transferred was not maintained. Nor were three property units located, nor did the employees show us for examination, 30% of the sample evaluated, which consisted of a digital camera, an inflatable, and a lawnmower.
The Municipality's Internal Audit Unit had not conducted audits or monitoring of the municipal enterprises administered by the Corporation. The absence of oversight can lead to errors being committed and deprives management of necessary information on the effectiveness in the use of resources.
The Report recommends to the director of the Office of Management and Budget to ensure that the Municipality of Quebradillas and the Corporation comply with the Corrective Action Plan established by the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico.
This second report on Quebradillas covers the period from July 1, 2015 to January 31, 2019.
See Audit Report M-21-11.
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.
