The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Department of Justice. A qualified opinion is issued when the instances of non-compliance, individually or in the aggregate, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that as of August 29, 2022, an accounts-receivable balance of $864,275 remained, that is, 94% of the total accounts receivable related to the improper payment of salaries between 2013 and 2022. These payments were made to employees who were absent and did not have balances in their sick leave or vacation leave.
The five-finding audit notes that the Department paid $103,350 to an employee who was absent due to illness from 2019 to 2021, without having a balance. His supervisor, who was the District prosecutor, and the assistant secretary of Human Resources, were aware of the lack-of-balance situation but did not suspend the payroll payment until 2021.
In addition, from the examination of 10 accounts receivable totaling $261,799, it was evidenced that the amount owed was not deducted from the salary in two accounts, collection efforts were not made in seven accounts, and the referrals for judicial collection efforts were not found in nine accounts. These situations cause the accounts to accumulate and, over time, to become uncollectible.
The Division of Public Integrity and Comptroller Affairs of the Department of Justice has not had internal regulations since 2004. These regulations must contain provisions on the purposes, the administrative organization, and the duties and responsibilities of the Division. In addition, the Administrative Order that creates the Division does not contain the necessary provisions on the registry of referrals and complaints. The fact that the personnel do not have precise information about the tasks may have contributed to the delay of up to 11 years in the processing of the cases.
In this regard, the Report comments that for the audited period, 131 active cases in the process of investigation were identified with delays of 2 to 11 years. The officials indicated that the cases are postponed in order to handle the referrals from the Independent Special Prosecutor Panel, which must be referred within a term no longer than six months. In addition, the employees indicated that the investigations are extensive, the number of prosecutors is insufficient, the changes of prosecutors affect the follow-up, and the cases lose importance when there is not enough evidence to file them, among other reasons.
On the other hand, the audit publishes that the annual physical inventories of the property were not carried out in various units since 2018, the differences with Treasury were not clarified, and the property acquired for the central building, valued at $2,897,050, did not have a property number. In addition, as of January 10, 2023, the Secretary of Justice had not requested that the Department of the Treasury appoint a property custodian.
The Report discloses that following the approval of Act 143-2014, the Act to Guarantee Effective Communication among the Security Components of 2014, the work plan to implement the measures provided in the Act had not been approved or submitted to the Legislative Assembly. The plan was to be presented by the Intergovernmental Committee chaired by the Secretary of Justice, and composed of principal officials of Courts, the Puerto Rico Police, Correction and Rehabilitation, Family, Transportation and Public Works, Forensic Sciences, and Health. The act would allow an effective exchange of information to achieve the maximum functioning of the Criminal Justice Information System attached to the Department of Justice.
The auditors detected deficiencies that affect the integrity and reduce the reliability of the data in the registry of cases investigated in the Division of Public Integrity and Comptroller Affairs. For example, 897 jumps were identified between the case numbers and, in 171 cases, the receipt date was not recorded.
As of June 28, 2023, the Department of Justice had 138 lawsuits totaling $110,648,310 pending resolution by the courts.
From July 1, 2018, to April 30, 2023, the Department of Justice had fund appropriations of $811,027,000 and made disbursements of $564,326,914.
This first report of the Department of Justice covers the period from January 1, 2018, to April 30, 2023.
Audit Report OC-24-36 can be obtained on our website: www.ocpr.gov.pr.
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