Press Releases

National Parks Program of Puerto Rico, Department of Natural and Environmental Resources

The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico (OCPR) issued an adverse opinion on the fiscal operations of the National Parks Program of Puerto Rico of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. The tests performed and the evidence revealed that the operations related to collections, the recording, the accounting, and use of own funds, were not carried out in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

The Report reveals a difference of $1,258,429 between the values deposited and the receipts recorded at the Department of Treasury. The deposits of the National Parks Program amounted to $2,742,188 and the remittance vouchers totaled $1,483,749. The Comptroller's auditors could not determine whether this difference corresponded to deposited values and unrecorded receipts.

This deficiency encourages that the collected income was not recorded as own funds and does not allow the Program to have complete and reliable information. In addition, it prevents the Department of Treasury from maintaining control of the deposits and transactions recorded in its Income and Collection System of the Treasury Area (SIRAT).

The four-finding audit notes that the official collectors did not record in the SIRAT system or in the Puerto Rico Integrated Financial Accounting System (PRIFAS) the totality of the collections. On the visits to the Program's office, boxes and envelopes of the daily reconciliation reports were observed unrecorded, and on the visits to three facilities of the Program, daily reconciliation reports for $283,769 were observed not delivered to the collector to be recorded in SIRAT and in PRIFAS.

This situation is attributed to the fact that the auxiliary collectors did not have access to the SIRAT system, and to the lack of support personnel in the Department's Finance.

On the other hand, the National Parks Program did not make efforts to establish new lease agreements for the mobile homes and the concessionaires. At the Seven Seas Beach in Fajardo, the occupation of 95 spaces with leases expired for up to more than 13 years was allowed. At four other facilities, 14 concessionaires had authorizations expired for more than four years. In addition, from 2018 to 2022, the Department did not have a registry of accounts receivable.

The fact of not collecting accounts in the corresponding fiscal year may cause the lack of resources and encourages them to become uncollectible. These situations had already been published in Audit Report DA-19-28 of June 4, 2019.

From the examination performed, disbursements of $272,339 were identified that were not related to the operations of National Parks, such as the monitoring of the pump houses or the installation of a new propeller for an airplane belonging to another program. The then budget chief departed from the regulatory provisions.

The Report publishes that physical inventories were not conducted, nor were the perpetual inventories of the official receipts of the collectors maintained. Upon cessation of functions or transfer of collectors, neither were the inventories of the parking tickets conducted, nor reconciliation of collections, nor the delivery of the official receipt books. These deficiencies evidence a lack of adequate control in the collection process.

The audit notes the delay of more than four years to integrate the National Parks Program into the Department of Natural Resources. Act 171-2018 established 180 days as the term for integration, and 60 days for the transfer of employees.

The auditors found that the Department has $18,344,860 in federal funds for 18 permanent improvement projects at 13 facilities. After more than 18 months, these funds were encumbered, but not disbursed. For example, the Punta Santiago Vacation Center, which received $3,078,903 of these federal funds, had no fence limiting entry access, 63 cabins suffered damage after the hurricane, 36 cabins were a total loss, and the pool motors were damaged (see Appendix 2 of the Report). The Dr. Juan Rivero Zoo in Mayagüez, which received $6,324,361, had abandoned areas and gazebos, roads in poor condition, and the cage mesh in poor conditions (see Appendix 3 of the Report).

The Report also notes that 42% of the information requests made by the OCPR were delivered up to two months after the due date. In addition, on 13 occasions the information had to be returned to the officials to be corrected. This situation, which is in violation of the provisions of the Constitution, adversely affects the audit processes and limits their development and completion.

As of June 30, 2022, after up to 16 years had elapsed, the regulation related to the National Parks Company had not been reviewed or updated. Examples of this are Regulation 7166, on the General Rules for the Rental, Concession, or Use of the Facilities of 2006, and Regulation 7447 for the Use and Enjoyment of the Vacation Centers of 2008.

From 2019 to 2023, the Program received general fund allocations of $32,412,521, and own income of $10,743,311, for a total of $43,155,831. For this period the program disbursed $34,921,837, which reported a surplus of $8,233,994.

The Report recommends that the secretary of the Department continue the efforts to complete the integration of the Program into the Department, that she establish a work plan for the projects, and that she instruct the personnel to deliver the information requested by the OCPR in a reasonable time.

This report of the National Parks Program covers the period from August 2, 2018, to June 30, 2023.

The Audit Report OC-24-60 can be obtained on our website: www.ocpr.gov.pr.