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Office of the Comptroller reveals overpayments of $48 thousand and absence of analysis on the contracting of professional services in regular positions at ASSMCA

The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration. A qualified opinion is issued when the noncompliances, individually or together, are significant but not pervasive.

The Report reveals that the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration (ASSMCA) overpaid $47,976 to three contractors for services related to health, professional services and non-professional services. In addition, multiple deficiencies were detected in invoices certified without breaking down the time invested in each task, without including the number or date of the contract, nor deducting the contribution to the General Fund. ASSMCA also paid $4,962 for administrative services performed remotely that included in-person tasks such as punching contracts, creating files and classifying documents.

This situation has the effect that ASSMCA is not certain that the information on the invoices and the payments are in accordance with what was contracted. In addition, the Report recommends that efforts be made to recover the $47,976 improperly paid.

The audit, with three findings, notes that 75% of the contracts examined were registered with the Office of the Comptroller with delays of up to two months. As of July 3, 2024, the administrator of ASSMCA had not sent the Annual Certification of Contract Registry for fiscal year 2022, and the one for 2023 was sent 150 days later than the established date.

The Report indicates that the contracting of the services of accountants to perform the single audits of ASSMCA were formalized up to 196 days after the deadline. Any entity that disburses federal funds of $750,000 or more must perform a single audit of the financial statements and report it to the federal agencies.

The audit comments that ASSMCA contracted services to perform tasks of vacant regular positions such as that of center director, medical director or administrative purchasing coordinator, among others. From 2021 to 2023, the entity had a decrease of 416 positions and granted 379 contracts for $16.5 million. ASSMCA had not conducted a study to determine the most economical and efficient way to provide these services, nor had it requested help from the Office of Management and Budget to carry out this evaluation.

In addition, the auditors identified that a contractor billed $262 to ASSMCA and to the Senate for the same activity, the “FORPAP Workshop on Psychological First Aid at the Puerto Rican Club of the Municipality of Guánica,” which was held on November 14.

ASSMCA's budget from 2020 to 2024 amounted to $915.4 million, and made disbursements of $769.2 million.

This second and final report covers the period from July 1, 2019 to April 30, 2023.

The Audit Report OC-25-72 can be obtained on our website: www.ocpr.gov.pr.