Press Releases

Office of the Comptroller reveals improper payments and without a contract for more than $3.3 million for debris collection in parks of the Department of Recreation and Sports

The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a qualified opinion on the operations related to the collection of debris caused by Hurricanes Irma and María, and other services of the Department of Recreation and Sports (DRD). A qualified opinion is issued when the breaches individually or collectively are significant, but not pervasive.

The Report reveals that the Department of Recreation and Sports disbursed, retroactively and improperly, $3,338,608 million for the debris collection service in parks and recreational facilities, from August 10, 2019 to June 30, 2020. These services were paid without amending in time the original contract formalized on March 28, 2019, whose amount had already been exhausted on August 10, 2019.

Amendment A of June 24, 2019 extended the term of the contract to June 30, 2020, but did not assign an amount. However, Amendment B of June 23, 2020 assigned $3,220,206 million approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the DRD paid retroactively and contrary to law for the work contemplated in Amendment A.

In addition, the Department paid $80,000 for 10 invoices that included services rendered before the term of the contract, and disbursed $3,667,538 million in invoices without detailing the matters addressed. This situation of not specifying in the invoices the time invested, the facilities inspected or the meetings held fosters that irregularities are committed in the disbursements.

The audit of one finding comments that, although the same contract was amended on four additional occasions to extend its term until July 31, 2022, no funds were assigned. This situation caused that the contractor's invoices totaling $2,334,111 million could not be paid.

This situation has the effect that a contractor who renders services in excess of the maximum amount of the contract acts unilaterally and generates an implicit obligation for the government entity.

The Report recommends to the Secretary of Recreation and Sports that he establish control procedures to assign and approve funds before they are exhausted.

The DRD received $460,281,635 million in budgetary allocations from 2018 to 2023, and made disbursements totaling $330,515,734 million for the same period.

This second report of the Department of Recreation and Sports covers the period from January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023. On September 8, 2025 we approved the Audit Report OC-26-05. This contains the results of the audit we conducted on the Department of Recreation and Sports to determine whether the operations related to debris collection were carried out in accordance with applicable law and regulation.