The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Municipality of Adjuntas. 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 granted 13 contracts from 2015 to 2020 to a former official who had taken retirement, to perform duties characteristic of a position with supervisory responsibilities, on a regular schedule, and accruing vacation and sick leave. The retired former official had been director of Public Works until his retirement in 2011. During this period as special assistant to the former mayor, he had earned $118,152 and received $28,000 from the Retirement System Administration.
On the other hand, Act 447, Retirement System Act for the Employees of the Government of the Commonwealth, establishes that any pensioner may work in government entities, but only half-time of a regular workday and collect half of the basic salary corresponding to the position held. The former official contracted by the former mayor earned salaries in excess of $48,337. The Municipality also did not submit to the Office of Human Resources of the Commonwealth the semiannual reports on employed pensioners, as provided by Special Normative Letter No. 3-2010.
The three-finding audit points out that the internal auditor position was vacant from 2017 to 2020 and the Internal Audit Unit inoperative. This finding has been evidenced since 2009 in four audit reports of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico: M-09-50 of 2009, M-12-42 of 2012, M-15-24 of 2015, and M-18-21 of 2018.
On the other hand, the Commission on Audit Reports, Fiscal Situation, and Corruption of the Municipal Legislature was inoperative from 2017 to 2020. These situations prevent the Municipality from maintaining continuous and effective oversight of its finances and from avoiding the commission of errors and irregularities.
Contrary to the current law and regulation, the Municipality did not submit certain collaboration agreements for the approval of the municipal legislature. The agreements authorized the assignment of two municipal employees to provide services at two public schools and at the Adjuntas Health Center.
The Report recommended by letter on August 4, 2022, to the executive director of the Office of Government Ethics, to the administrator of the Retirement Systems for the Employees of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and to the director of the Office of Administration and Transformation of Human Resources of the Government of Puerto Rico, to consider the situations involving the retired former official contracted in Adjuntas so that they may take the appropriate measures. This second report on Adjuntas covers the period from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2020.
See Audit Report M-23-07.
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