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The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Municipality of Barceloneta. A qualified opinion is issued when noncompliances, individually or together, are significant but not pervasive.

The Report reveals that the Municipality made a purchase of equipment and vehicles in the state of Florida, for which it disbursed $48,730 in excess of what was established in the municipal ordinance and without guarantees. In addition, disbursement vouchers were issued without issuing the purchase orders until three months later. This situation prevents maintaining control of the budgetary appropriations and could lead to overdrafts.

The five-finding audit notes that, contrary to the Regulation for Municipal Administration of 2016, no affirmative efforts were made to obtain quotes from at least three representative suppliers in the market. In addition, a purchase order for $3,125 was issued in favor of a supplier, with an altered Request for Quotations form and without the signature of the employee who made the modification.

The auditors found that the property custodian did not conduct the annual physical inventory of the property for 2016, did not report the differences found in the 2017 inventory, and had not prepared the Transfer of Property of 46 units, as of April 11, 2018. This situation reflects the lack of adequate controls over the property and leads to its improper use or loss.

The Municipality of Barceloneta had to pay $2,535 in fines for 169 violations of Act 22-2000, on Vehicles and Traffic of Puerto Rico related to the lack of balance in the Auto Expreso account. This situation is attributed to the fact that the auxiliary director of Finance and the deputy director of Head Start did not conduct periodic analyses of the account balances.

Since 1994, the position classification plans for career and trust services in Barceloneta have not been updated. This situation does not allow maintaining an adequate system for personnel administration.

In addition, the Municipality's Cash Report reflected economic resources of $13,234 in two special funds that had remained inactive for more than nine years. A similar situation had been commented on in Audit Report M-16-32 of 2016.

The Report comments that the Public Documents Administration Program, attached to the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, notified the mayor on June 15 and October 18, 2018, of the possible violation of Law and regulations following the unauthorized destruction of documents by municipal employees. In addition, the Program required information about the confiscated documents that as of December 31, 2018 had not been provided.

The Office of the Comptroller notified and oriented the Municipality in 2017 about a contract it had with a special partnership in 2013, for which it paid $88,296, and whose president had pleaded guilty to bribing a representative of another municipality before the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. Act 458-2000, as amended, provides, among other things, that no government entity may contract services or goods from a natural or juridical person who has been convicted of or has pleaded guilty to crimes constituting fraud, embezzlement, or illegal appropriation of public funds. As of December 5, 2018, the Municipality certified that it had not conducted an analysis to determine the restitution of funds, due to the lack of personnel and high volume of work.

Barceloneta has maintained 162 employees classified as temporary for more than three years. The law establishes that such hires cannot exceed one year, with some exceptions.

The Report recommends to the director of the Office of Management and Budget to ensure that the Municipality complies with the Corrective Action Plan established by the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico.

The Barceloneta report covers the period from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2018.

See Audit Report M-21-16.

To see other published reports, visit our Audit Reports section.