Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico signs agreement to strengthen new technologies in oversight
The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico signed an agreement that reaffirms the use of information and communication technologies in the oversight of transactions and public funds. The commitment, signed by 21 countries at the meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (OLACEFS) held in Argentina, bets in an “unwavering and irreversible” manner on advancing in the use of the tools and innovations that technologies provide for the control of public management.
Source: OLACEFS
The Comptroller of Puerto Rico, Yesmín M. Valdivieso, agrees that the use of new technologies “is a path that will bring confidence to citizens about the quality, transparency and timeliness of our work,” as the declaration reads. In fact, “the maintenance and development of a modern and technological infrastructure has been one of the main objectives in the transformation of the Office of the Comptroller in recent years.”
Some of the Office of the Comptroller's innovative projects in the handling of digital evidence in audits is the Division of Data Analysis, Digital Forensics and Technological Development (AFD) in 2011. This Division provides auditors with specialized technical support to detect or corroborate the possible commission of a crime or irregularity and to reveal the identity of the responsible persons with reliable evidence admissible in administrative and judicial forums. To date, 45 digital forensic cases of possible fraud schemes have been worked on, and support has been provided to the Department of Justice of Puerto Rico in 10 cases and to the Office of Government Ethics in three cases.
In addition, the audit personnel have their Business Intelligence portal, among other technological applications, that help to extract information from the records of the audited entities.
In the Declaration of Buenos Aires, as the agreement has also been named, the Office of the Comptroller commits to sharing experiences in policies and procedures, the promotion of good practices, and technological innovation. The document signed on October 12 recognizes that oversight entities must “build a bridge between governments and citizens and constitute ourselves as a reliable source of information, independence and objectivity” through evaluations of governmental policies, programs and activities and the results they produce.
The agreement was signed by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curaçao, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Spain, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates and Puerto Rico. The document is available at www.ocpr.gov.pr.
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