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The Office of the Comptroller reveals noncompliance with law and regulations in the acquisition of goods

The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the fiscal operations of the Department of Education. A qualified opinion is issued when the noncompliances, individually or together, are significant but not pervasive.

The Report reveals that the Department of Education (DE) did not follow the process of inviting all the bidders registered in the Single Bidders Registry (RUL) of the General Services Administration to bid for whiteboards, air conditioners and laboratory equipment. Instead, three purchase orders were issued from 2020 to 2023, which together totaled $256,238 under the informal bidding modality.

The current law and regulations provide that, to acquire goods through informal or formal bidding, all the suppliers registered in the RUL must be invited according to the category corresponding to the good to be acquired.

The three-finding audit notes that they also did not invite all the bidders registered in the RUL to acquire technological assistance equipment and materials for the students of the Special Education Program. Instead, a Bidding Notice was published on January 28, 2021, on the Department's website and in the Single Bidding Registry.

In fact, for two orders under the exceptional purchase modality for $1.1 million and $2.5 million to print instructional pamphlets and acquire 1,800 temperature-taking stations, they did not obtain the recommendation of the assistant administrator of Acquisitions and the authorization of the Bidding officer of the General Services Administration (ASG).

The auditors identified other deficiencies such as the lack of information on the delivery date of goods in the purchase orders, or the penalty clause in cases of late delivery. These situations do not allow having a legal remedy in those cases where the goods are not received on the established date nor do they allow penalties to be imposed.

The Report reveals that the property-in-use receipts were not issued to the custodians of 30 laptop computers, four interactive whiteboards, 11 monitors and 15 robotics equipment. This property, acquired for $216,847, was being used in four public schools and two private schools.

In addition, units without property numbers were identified, six computers were not located and, as of October 11, 2024, the “Asset Management” module of the Department of Education's Financial Information System was not updated.

These situations do not allow control of the property to be maintained and prevent determining the responsible party in case of loss or damage. In this regard, it is recommended that necessary personnel be assigned to the Office of Property and Inventory Management, and that the Department's directors discontinue the practice of reassigning property.

The audit discloses that the Procedure for the Control and Accounting of the Property of the Department of Education, approved in 2006 and amended in 2007, does not have updated procedures. The employees do not have a guide to carry out their functions effectively and uniformly.

From July 1, 2020 to October 31, 2024, the Department had budgetary appropriations of $20,090 million and made disbursements of $19,985 million.

This report covers the period from July 1, 2020 to October 31, 2024.

Audit Report OC-25-92 is available on our website: www.ocpr.gov.pr.