The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion of the fiscal operations of the Municipality of Guayama. A qualified opinion is issued when the noncompliances, individually or together, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that the Municipality of Guayama did not ensure that the three contractors that purchased and installed 25 air-conditioning units for $68,727 between 2018 and 2020 delivered a certificate of the work performed as established by Act No. 36 of 1970, the Act to create the Examining Board and College of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technicians. In addition, the Act provides that the certification must have the seal of the refrigeration technician affixed and that the certificate must be delivered to the same natural or legal person who contracted its services. This situation could have been detrimental to the Municipality, since it has no certainty that the services were rendered in accordance with the laws governing the professions.
The two-finding audit notes that the Municipality kept two municipal employees on assignment, from 2011 to 2021, at the Department of Health and at the Office of the Guayama Municipal Alliance for Integrated Services, without any written agreements having been formalized. In addition, it also kept a municipal police officer on assignment at the Guayama Criminal Investigations Corps from 2008 to 2021, without renewing the collaborative agreement with the Police of Puerto Rico. These situations, contrary to Act 81-1991 on Autonomous Municipalities, have the effect that there are no legal documents establishing the rights of the parties.
The Report comments on the measures that the Municipality established in 2018 to address the fiscal crisis, such as: the elimination of the summer bonus, of vacant positions, and the patron-saint festivities. In addition, the mayor authorized the reduction of 10% of his salary, $100 of the Christmas bonus, and $30,000 of the municipal legislators' per diem, among others. These measures were also applied to the 2019, 2020, and 2021 budgets.
The audit recommends that the Office of Management and Budget ensure that the Municipality complies with the Corrective Action Plan established by the Office of the Comptroller. This first report on Guayama covers the period from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2021.
See Audit Report M-23-13.
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