The Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Ponce Educational Regional Office of the Department of Education. A qualified opinion is issued when the noncompliances individually or together are significant, but not pervasive.
The one-finding Report reveals that, from 2018 until the first semester of fiscal year 2021, the Ponce Educational Regional Office did not hold auctions for the acquisition of school transportation services. During this period, the Office awarded 407 emergency contracts for $7,299,090 for this service. The Internal Audit Office of the Department of Education had commented on a similar situation in 2018.
In addition, the audit notes that the contracts contained a clause that justified that, due to the lack of a defined budget, it could not comply with the auction process for the contracting of school transportation. As it was an essential service, the Department then determined to use the emergency process. From the examination performed, it is concluded that the Office signed emergency contracts every six months for four consecutive fiscal years. This situation fosters that certain providers be favored and that other offers not be evaluated.
Act 3-2017, Act to Address the Economic, Fiscal and Budgetary Crisis to Guarantee the Functioning of the Government of Puerto Rico, is not a contractual excuse for not having carried out the corresponding auctions. On the contrary, the law is an additional reason to carry out the required auction processes.
The audit comments that the physical files of nine school transportation contracts awarded from August 7 to 12, 2019, for $1,021,925, could not be examined. The superintendent reported that the files were located in one of the buildings affected by the earthquake of January 7, 2020, which could not be entered for reasons of health and safety.
The Report recommends to the secretary of Education that she issue instructions so that the regulations applicable to school transportation auctions be complied with, among others.
Audit Report OC-24-13 can be obtained on our Internet page: www.ocpr.gov.pr.
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