The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issues a qualified opinion on the operations of the Office of Information Systems of the Department of Education with regard to the controls for processing the data of the Time, Attendance and Leave System (TAL System), Human Resources Systems (STAFF System) and the Student Information System (SIE), among others. A qualified opinion is issued when the instances of noncompliance, individually or in the aggregate, are significant but not pervasive.
The Report reveals the investment of $1.5 million in the purchase and installation of the Workforce Attendance and Workforce Leave modules of the TAL System in 2007, which have not been used. The use of these modules is necessary to automate the attendance and leave processes of employees, and thus maintain control, guarantee the integrity and reliability of the transactions.
The seven-finding audit notes that the lack of automated administrative controls in the STAFF System caused that from January 1 to April 30, 2016, more than half a million dollars was paid to 105 former employees who were included in the payroll. In addition, $67,348 was improperly disbursed in payroll to four employees who were on leave without pay.
Our auditors identified delays of up to five years in updating the status in the STAFF System of employees who ceased functions at the Department of Education. For example, $50,267 was paid to an employee who had died in 2011 and to two other employees who had ceased functions and whose unauthorized absences were not deducted.
The Report shows that the Student Information System (SIE) implemented in 2001, was not reliable since some 303 students had repeated numbers two to 20 times for the same school period and another 406 students had two to six registered numbers. In addition, the Mi Portal Especial System (MiPE) had 120 accounts that had not been used for more than 180 days and 107 accounts of former employees that had not been deactivated. The MiPE system of the Special Education Program, was implemented to comply with the ruling of the San Juan Court in 1981 related to the case of Rosa Lydia Vélez versus the Department.
The Report covers the period from June 16, 2015 to October 31, 2016 and is available at www.ocpr.gov.pr.
See Audit Report TI-18-15.
To view other published reports, visit our Audit Reports section.
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