The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Municipality of Yauco. A qualified opinion is issued when the noncompliances individually or in the aggregate are significant, but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that purchase orders were made without obtaining at least three quotes, certain work was awarded with a quote in the name of a person who did not prepare it, and quotes were obtained without identifying the official who requested them or to whom they were awarded. In addition, in 2018, the purchase of a vehicle was awarded to a bidder who exceeded the most economical bidder by $5,470, and the requisition included the specific make and model name of the vehicle to be acquired. These situations contrary to current law and regulations defeat the purpose of obtaining the best offer through free competition among suppliers, and foster favoritism in the award.
The two-finding audit points out that the Municipality did not obligate sufficient budgetary credits for the payment of five contracts and one amendment for $161,977 for construction works. The obligations were recorded one month after the award and the funds were obligated one month after beginning to receive the services. A similar situation had been commented on in Audit Report M-18-12 of 2017.
The Municipality held an auction in 2015 of a property in the Almácigo Bajo ward on a 500-meter parcel, in whose file the minutes of the auction meetings, the specifications, the appraisal, nor the deeds of sale had been kept. In addition, the then mayor did not request authorization from the Legislature to grant the usufruct, nor did he execute a written contract to formalize the granting of the usufruct to the buyers.
The Office of the Comptroller's auditors detected errors in the calculations of the leave to be paid, which caused overpayments to a former official and four former employees of $2,889. In addition, from 2014 to 2017, base errors in the calculations caused overpayments and payments that were made up to 17 months after retirement.
The Report discloses multiple deficiencies with the disbursement vouchers, which did not include the official's certification of having received the materials as requested, nor the suppliers' certification regarding the absence of employee interests in the profits of the goods acquired. These situations are attributed to the Finance directors not adequately supervising these processes.
The examination of the Yauco personal property registry revealed that 4,177 units did not have the estimated cost at the date of their acquisition, nor did 4,172 units have the name and address of the supplier. In addition, the purchase of three saws and a blower was not included in the property registry, and no evidence of their loss was found. In fact, from 2016 to 2018 there were 23 accidents involving 23 municipal vehicles that were not reported to the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico as required by current law and regulations.
The Municipality submitted to the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico, up to 16 months late, 65% of the Monthly Payroll and Position Reports that by law must be sent no later than 30 consecutive days after the end of each month. In addition, as of June 30, 2019, it had not promulgated the regulations to establish the formula for calculating the accrual of vacation and sick leave for employees with a reduced work schedule.
This second and final Yauco report covers the period from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2019.
See Audit Report M-22-07.
To see other published reports, visit our Audit Reports section.
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