The Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion of the fiscal operations of the Computerized Information Systems of the Municipality of San Juan. 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 paid $70,614 for an automated citizen-services system that was not used. In the contract executed on December 5, 2019, the parties agreed to create an automated internet-based system that would allow the registration of services and requests. Nearly seven months after it was signed, the contract was renewed on June 30, 2020, even though the time anticipated to implement the system was six weeks. On February 11, 2021 the contract was canceled because the services were no longer required.
The audit of one finding shows that the staff used the system only partially and chose to use the previous system implemented in 2015. In addition, the Municipality did not ensure that the company completed the final configuration of the users or that it provided the training.
In fact, there is no evidence that the company performed additional tasks related to the configuration of the system, or the training, during the seven months prior to the cancellation of the contract in 2021. This situation did not allow the Municipality to obtain an efficient and economical return on the resources invested.
This finding is attributed to the fact that no needs or market study of the technological system was conducted, the officials did not have the knowledge to negotiate or administer the contracts, and they did not have the participation of the staff of the Information Systems Office or that of Citizen Services. Other delays in the fulfillment of the contract are attributed to work suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to staff resistance to using the system, or to the fact that the information from the previous system could not be migrated.
The Municipality's general budget rose from $627,209,868 in fiscal year 2020 to $627,630,907 in 2021 and to $670,033,933 in 2022. The Information Systems Office had a budget of $3,514,727, $3,717,529 and $3,558,004 for fiscal years 2020 to 2022 respectively.
The audit recommends that the director of the Office of Management and Budget ensure that the Municipality of San Juan complies with the Corrective Action Plan established by the Office of the Comptroller.
This third report on San Juan's computerized information systems covers the period from December 5, 2019 to August 31, 2022.
Audit Report OC-24-30 can be obtained on our website: www.ocpr.gov.pr.
Some documents on this page are saved in PDF format.
To view these documents, you must have the following free program installed.
