The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion of Dorado's fiscal operations related to purchases, contracts, disbursements, and the air conditioning maintenance service, among others. A qualified opinion is issued when individual or combined noncompliance is significant, but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that the Municipality did not ensure that two officers and 10 employees of the corporation contracted for $915,000, for the repair and maintenance of the air conditioners between 2016 and 2018, held the licenses and the evidence of membership, from the Examining Board and the Association of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technicians of Puerto Rico respectively. The Municipality also did not request, nor did the contractor certify that the work performed was carried out by persons who comply with the State's requirements through a form provided by the Association for such purposes. This situation could have been harmful to the Municipality, since it allowed unauthorized persons to work and could affect the quality of the services received.
These situations were referred to the presidents of the Board and of the Association of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technicians of Puerto Rico, so that they take the measures they deem pertinent. A similar situation detected in an audit in the Municipality of Manatí had been referred to them on December 5, 2019.
The two-finding audit points out that the Municipality of Dorado paid $5,325 to the contractor for air conditioner maintenance services not rendered. In fact, the Municipality did not obligate the budgetary credits when the contracts were granted until one year and ten months later, contrary to the Regulation for Municipal Administration of 2016.
The Report publishes deficiencies with respect to undocumented purchases and services and the processing of quotes. For example, the Comptroller's auditors detected from a sample that from 2017 to 2019, $14,126 in goods and services were paid without documenting the efforts to obtain at least three quotes. In addition, it was detected that 53% of the quotes examined were requested before the requisition of the goods or services was issued, a situation that distorts the regular purchasing procedure and reduces its reliability.
As of September 30, 2020, nine civil lawsuits for $4,725,000 were pending resolution by the courts. In addition, three cases were also pending resolution before the Public Service Appeals Commission.
This first report of Dorado covers the period from July 1, 2017 to October 31, 2019.
See Audit Report M-22-14.
To see other published reports, visit our Audit Reports section.
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