The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion of the fiscal operations of the Municipality of Utuado. A qualified opinion is issued when the noncompliance, individually or as a whole, is significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that the Municipality invested $2,234,619 in a construction project that is in a state of abandonment and that has had no usefulness.
The project began to be built in 2011 as a municipal coliseum. The mayor elected in 2012 changed the concept to a convention center, but construction stopped in 2019 due to the passage of Hurricane María and the lack of funds (see photos in the Report). A similar situation had been commented on in Audit Report M-17-27 of 2017.
The five-finding audit notes that, as of October 31, 2020, 80% of the compensatory time leave records examined had up to 307 hours of compensatory time in excess of the 240 hours established by current regulation.
As of the date of the audit, the Municipality had 149 employees. This deficiency indicates that the Municipality does not maintain adequate administration of compensatory time, and this may result in payments being made in excess of the hours accumulated.
In addition, as of September 24, 2020, the Municipality had not updated the regulation for Career Personnel and Confidential Personnel from the one approved in 2002, nor the regulation for the Employment of Irregular Personnel from the one approved in 2007. This situation has the effect of not having an adequate system for the administration of personnel.
The auditors detected that the property custodian of Utuado had not performed the annual physical inventories of the personal property for fiscal years 2019 and 2020. In addition, in the Head Start and Early Head Start programs, 11 units of property—including refrigerators, stoves, and cabinets valued at $28,267—were not located, nor did 14 units valued at $38,114—including electronic whiteboards, a refrigerator, and a stove—have their property number marked.
The Report discloses multiple deficiencies with the inactive file, among others, the lack of written procedures to preserve the documents, the absence of an inventory, and the lack of document disposal lists. In addition, the file areas lacked equipment to safeguard the documents, sufficient shelving, and the roof had leaks.
This situation is attributed to the fact that the mayors in office did not adequately protect the interests of the Municipality, the officials did not supervise these procedures, and the custodian did not fulfill his duties.
The audit of Utuado also revealed that, as of March 31, 2021, the Municipality maintained 16 bank accounts of special funds for $287,167, which had remained inactive for 27 months. This situation makes municipal accounting difficult by keeping inactive funds for years in the books and fiscal reports.
The Report comments that the Municipality paid $84,387 in 2019, by court order, to three employees who filed a civil lawsuit against the Municipality and the Head Start Program in 2009.
As of June 30, 2021, seven civil lawsuits were pending resolution in the courts for $45,735,650. The lawsuits were filed for allegations of political discrimination, collection of money, and breach of contracts, among others.
The Municipality of Utuado had not recovered $705,308, indicated in Audit Report M-14-13 of 2013.
The Report recommends that the Office of Management and Budget ensure that the Municipality of Utuado complies with the Corrective Action Plan established by the Office of the Comptroller.
The Utuado report covers the period from December 1, 2018, to June 30, 2021.
See Audit Report M-23-33.
To see other published reports, visit our Audit Reports section.
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