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Democrats and Republicans have approached Comptroller Yesmín Valdivieso, but the official is only interested in helping with the audits

The Comptroller of Puerto Rico, Yesmín Valdivieso, is already translating into English the most important findings of her office so that, when the Federal Fiscal Control Board arrives, the work of administrative reorganization, reduction, and government efficiency takes into consideration the failures detected in the audits.

The federal PROMESA law provides for the board to be given access to all contracts, which is nonsensical to the comptroller because they are already public. Nevertheless, her office is preparing for the arrival of this new authority.

Given that the professional background of the board members is still unknown, the comptroller is translating into English a descriptive report of all agencies and public corporations, so that these persons foreign to the operation and culture of the government can understand the organizational chart of the government programs and the funds that sustain them, prior to any decision-making.

Her office is also translating a summary of the most important findings of each government unit, to recommend that the work of administrative reorganization begin in the areas with the most adverse results.

Aware of the political changes this board implies, the accountant has been moving among the federal comptroller, the Office of the Resident Commissioner, and lobbyists to ensure that the audits play a predominant role in the work the board carries out.

In the search for persons to fill a seat on the board, including at least one who is a resident of Puerto Rico, Democrats and Republicans have sounded out the comptroller’s interest, she confessed. “I told them that I cannot be part of that board. We are auditors. What I want to be is an advisor to the board, because if they go out to hire consultants… let them ask us, we can tell them what the problems are and it will be free for them,” she argued.

Valdivieso expressed concern that this new authority in Puerto Rico would make the same mistakes the government has made for decades, in terms of hiring external advisory firms instead of using the expertise of internal resources, or making layoff and cut decisions without the proper analysis of the consequences.

She recalled that in the case of Act 7 of 2009, enacted by the Luis Fortuño administration, thousands of public employees were laid off without an adequate evaluation of the personnel the agencies had. That was the case, for example, of the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration (ASSMCA), which went two years without processing invoices because under Act 7 the entire staff of the collections department was laid off. An external firm ended up being hired to do the work.

“That is one of the most important things I have to bring to this board, because everyone thinks that is the first thing they are going to do: lay off public employees. I am going to have to tell them that if they are going to lay off employees, they first have to do an analysis,” she said, to avoid making the same mistake as in the past. She assured that employees can also be transferred to agencies of greater need.

She also expressed concern that the arrival of this board would represent another threat to her office, which in more than ten years has obtained a reduction of $4 million in its budget. She urged both the board and the candidates for governor to take advantage of the auditors’ expertise to do well-documented work.