The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico, issued on Wednesday an adverse opinion of the operations 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 of the Bureau subject of this Report were not carried out in accordance with the applicable law and regulations.
The report reveals that the Bureau disbursed 24,175 dollars for unnecessary insurance coverage from 2015 to 2021; that is, 9,000 dollars to insure artwork it did not have, 2,931 dollars for the premium of a facility it did not occupy, and 12,244 dollars in subsequent coverage endorsement, for the same facility it did not occupy. This situation is attributed to the fact that the Director of Administration did not update the inventories of insurable properties, nor did she send them to the insurance producers before formalizing the policies. The Director of Administration did not understand the content of the policies since she did not have the academic preparation in insurance.
The two-finding audit notes that facility 4 of the Bureau did not have a structure coverage policy for two years. The insurer authorized including facility 4 in the general coverage effective March 12, 2021 by endorsement.
These situations were referred to the Office of the Insurance Commissioner on July 6, 2023 so that it takes the appropriate measures.
The auditors identified that the Bureau lacks regulations to administer insurance. As of August 17, 2021 there were no rules to, for example, annually send the list of properties and risks to the Public Insurance Area at the Treasury, notify the producer of any change of properties, or designate the official authorized to request changes in the insurance.
The Report comments that the Area administrator did not ensure that the producer trained the Bureau's personnel or that the producer included the Area's personnel in the meetings with the Bureau. In addition, the Area administrator also did not verify with the Bureau the correctness of the premium increase for the coverage of the 3.3 million dollar structure.
From 2016 to 2019, the financial statements audited by certified public accountants reflected that the Bureau obtained own income of 85,762,777 dollars, incurred operational expenses of 84,997,850 dollars, and had a non-operational loss of 9,226,637 dollars, which resulted in a deficit of 8,461,710 dollars.
The audit recommends to the Secretary of Public Safety that he give instructions to the commissioner of the Bureau, so that he ensures compliance with the recommendations of the Comptroller's Report.
This second report covers the period from January 1, 2017 to January 31, 2022, and is available at www.ocpr.gov.pr
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