COR3 paid more than $4 million for professional and consulting services without the reports of services rendered
The Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Central Office for Recovery and Reconstruction of Puerto Rico of the Public-Private Partnerships Authority of Puerto Rico. A qualified opinion is issued when the noncompliances, individually or as a whole, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals that the Central Office for Recovery and Reconstruction of Puerto Rico (COR3) paid $4,200,361 for professional and consulting services, without requiring the labor reports with the detail of the services rendered and the hours invested from the contractor. The auditors could not verify the correctness, legality, and accuracy of the services of the Disaster Recovery Project Formulation Services Assistance contract formalized on March 22, 2021.
In addition, 119 invoices for $54,784,299 were identified that did not include the certification indicating that the services have not been paid previously. This certification is a requirement of Circular Letter 1300-13-01. These evaluated invoices also include the Disaster Recovery Strategic and Compliance Services Assistance after Hurricane Irma and Maria contract.
The two-finding audit also notes that COR3 did not comply with the clause to pay the contracts within the established term, nor did it require the contractor of Project Formulation Services the certification of being registered in the Single Registry of Professional Service Providers (RUP). These situations may, on the one hand, cause the cancellation of the contracts and, on the other hand, leave the government unprotected by not ensuring that the provider complied with its tax responsibilities.
In violation of the Constitutive Charter of the Central Office for Recovery and Reconstruction of Puerto Rico, COR3 had not established regulation with the criteria to review, accept, and approve the services requested through task orders to the Project Formulation Services contract. Although the director of Project Development provided a User Guide from December 2021, this document prepared by the provider itself was not approved by COR3.
The income and expense statements, from 2018 to 2021, reflected that the Authority generated income of $4,243,054,031 and incurred expenses amounting to $4,214,170,990. This figure resulted in a surplus of $28,883,041.
The audit recommends that the director of COR3 instruct the director of Administration so that both ensure that the associate director of Finance supervises and complies with the recommendations of the Report.
This second and final report of COR3 covers the period from October 23, 2017, to December 31, 2022, and is available at www.ocpr.gov.pr.
The Audit Report OC-24-57 can be obtained on our website: www.ocpr.gov.pr.
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