Audit reveals disbursements without a written contract at the Ponce campus of the University of Puerto Rico
The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the University of Puerto Rico at Ponce. 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 University of Puerto Rico at Ponce paid $143,097 to a contractor to acquire and install electrical equipment and materials in a campus building, without formalizing a written contract. The transaction was made on October 7, 2022, through a purchase order, which, unlike a contract, does not represent the agreements and obligations between the parties nor protect the interests of UPR at Ponce.
The four-finding audit notes that $165,351 was paid for emergency goods and services without obtaining at least quotes from three representative market suppliers. The file also did not include the justifications for not obtaining the three quotes. These purchases were paid with funds to address the emergencies caused by COVID-19 and Hurricane Maria.
The auditors detected other deficiencies such as the absence of a signature on disbursement vouchers by the employee in charge, the absence of a signature by the supplier who provided the goods, and disbursement supporting documents not marked as paid. These situations foster the commission of irregularities and prevent them from being detected in time to assign responsibility.
In contravention of the Property Regulation, the acting property officers certified the inventories for 2019 through 2022, even though they were incomplete. These inventories did not include all the units of the campus nor did they perform the tests to validate their reliability prior to the final certification.
In addition, of a sample of 955 units of property for $1,911,606, units not included in the inventory were identified, a lack of information on the property custodians, and 87 units with a value of $98,873 were not located. These situations of lack of adequate control over property prevent validating the assets that the university possesses.
UPR at Ponce registered and submitted to the Office of the Comptroller a copy of 41 contracts and 14 amendments for $171,394, with delays of up to 6 months. This situation prevented these public documents from being available to the public, as provided by Regulation 33 of the Registry of Contracts.
From July 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021, UPR at Ponce had revenue of $149,716,031 and incurred expenses of $156,354,237, for a deficit of $6,638,206.
The Operational Fund budget of UPR at Ponce, for fiscal years 2019 through 2022, was $23,068,820; $21,296,502; $23,760,495 and $20,001,465, respectively.
The Report recommends that the president of UPR ensure that the chancellor of Ponce complies with the four recommendations of the audit.
This first report of UPR at Ponce OC-24-45 covers the period from July 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021, and is available at www.ocpr.gov.pr.
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