The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued an adverse opinion of the fiscal operations of the Computerized Information Systems of the 9-1-1 Emergency Systems Bureau of the Department of Public Safety of Puerto Rico. The tests performed and the evidence revealed that the operations related to the investment and payments of the Social Alert platform emergency alert system were not carried out, in all significant aspects, in accordance with the applicable law and regulations.
The Report reveals that the 9-1-1 Emergency Systems Bureau (Bureau) invested $167,750 in the acquisition of the licensing and implementation of the Social Alert platform that has had no usefulness whatsoever since it has only been in the testing stage. In addition, the mobile application was not installed, and the monitoring portal, the alert reports, and the educational portal never were in operation.
The Social Alert platform was intended to interact with social media and allow citizens to report emergency incidents in real time, through a mobile application.
The Bureau formalized a contract on May 6, 2015, for $869,000 for the acquisition of the licensing and implementation of the Social Alert security platform for 9-1-1 Emergencies. The contract, in force until May 4, 2020, was canceled on December 6, 2016 after it was revealed in an internal audit report that no additional quotations were obtained, and that neither a feasibility study nor a cost-benefit analysis had been performed. In addition, in December 2016, the director of the Bureau's Information Systems Office established that the application was only in the testing stage, that the personnel did not participate in the evaluation process, and that, in awarding the contract, the requirements and standards of the federal regulations were not considered.
This situation is attributed to the fact that the then executive director and deputy executive director did not perform a needs and feasibility study to analyze whether the platform fit their operational and technological requirements. These officials also did not request, nor examine, additional proposals to compare and evaluate the costs presented by the contractor.
The two-finding audit notes that the Bureau approved the most costly and advantageous billing for the contractor. The then executive director signed the contract with a one-sided clause under which the Bureau had to pay $92,000 for the planning and development stage of the Social Alert platform, whose license was not exclusive, and $8,000 for implementation. A one-sided clause is one that undermines the balance in the contractual performances, grants unjustified advantages, and is contrary to the reciprocity of the performances. The Report stresses that the Bureau should have required a final product that was functional and adapted to the existing systems.
The audit reveals that the Bureau paid invoices for the various phases of the Social Alert platform, without mentioning the programming performed to make it functional, without having implemented it, in the testing stage, and unable to be used. In addition, the contracted trainings did not present the product, did not explain the use of the platform, and were not perceived as useful for the telecommunicators of the call reception center.
The audit recommends to the Secretary of Justice that he advise the Bureau so that it carries out the corresponding recovery actions. This report on the 9-1-1 Emergency Systems Bureau covers the period from May 6, 2015 to June 30, 2021.
See Audit Report TI-23-06.
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