Articles

According to the report, ASES did not carry out an open and competitive contracting process.

By Metro Puerto Rico
May 19, 2025 at 12:36 hrs.

The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issued a report on the fiscal operations of the Health Insurance Administration (ASES), after detecting payments of more than 34 million dollars for null professional and consulting services contracts.

“ASES granted amendments with retroactive effect to pay services to contractors, even when the maximum limit established per contract had been reached”, indicated the Comptroller's report.

From the analysis of a sample of 319 contracts and 314 amendments granted between 2016 and 2020 totaling 10,362 million dollars, 16 percent of the amendments were issued retroactively, 10 percent were made on expired contracts, and 5 percent without approval from the Board of Directors.

It was also noted that ASES did not carry out an open and competitive contracting process.

The report establishes that ASES justified its actions on an “erroneous” legal opinion that allowed amending contracts after having received approval of additional funds from the Office of Management and Budget. This interpretation was used to make retroactive payments, which contravenes the regulations in force.

During July and August 2018, ASES signed null amendments to expired contracts for more than 34.3 million dollars for public relations services and pharmacy benefit management, a practice that the Office of the Comptroller classified as invalid under the law.

The audit found that ASES paid 2.9 million dollars for subcontracted services without authorization, 3,213 dollars without a contract and 1,751 dollars in excess of what was contracted. A company was also allowed to bill 8,970 dollars for advisors outside the contract, redistributing hours after the agreement took effect.

The Comptroller recommended that the Board of Directors of ASES initiate an investigation into the compliance of finance and administration personnel, and take disciplinary measures if appropriate.

Other deficiencies include the authorization of work already performed, retroactive payments, absence of regulations for advertising services and lack of risk assessments between 2018 and 2022. In addition, up to 2.1 million dollars were paid for functions equivalent to regular positions, which could have represented a savings of 1.4 million if they had been paid through payroll.

As of June 30, 2022, ASES insured 1,276,451 lives, and between 2017 and 2022, managed a budget of 19,176 million dollars with disbursements of 18,952 million.

This second and final audit report covers the period from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2022.

Statements from ASES
The Health Insurance Administration of Puerto Rico (ASES) stated through written declarations that it activated a corrective and preventive action plan after receiving last Friday a report from the Office of the Comptroller noting multiple administrative deficiencies.

In an official declaration issued today, Monday, the interim executive director of ASES, Lymari Colón, indicated that: “From the moment we received the report last week, we did not waste time. We immediately activated a concrete action plan —not only to correct what was noted, but also to prevent similar situations from happening again”.