A recent report by the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico showed that the Municipality of Lares carried out a project to build platforms for niches in the municipal cemetery without obtaining the proper permit.
“The construction permit for improvements to the Julio C. Morales athletic track, which cost $183,384, was obtained six months after the work began,” the Office of the Comptroller stated. “These situations prevented the Permit Management Office from exercising its regulatory function before the start of construction,” it adds.
“In six of the 14 quotations for three of the five projects examined, it was not identified who requested and accepted them,” the report reads. “These deficiencies foster the commission of irregularities in the processes.”
The report also reveals that two of the Municipality's agreements with a nonprofit entity did not receive approval from the Municipal Legislature before being executed in 2019 and 2020. In addition, the 2019 agreement was not submitted to the Office of the Comptroller's Contract Registry, and the 2020 one was registered two and a half years after its execution.
It was identified that the Municipality of Lares did not maintain continuous and effective control of its finances and operations, since the Internal Audit Office did not conduct audits in areas of materiality and risk, for example, in purchases and disbursements with the funds to address the COVID-19 emergency.
“The Municipality of Lares did not report 46 of the 55 accidents and thefts to the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico,” the report warned. “In addition, administrative investigations were not conducted in 34 incidents. This prevents the Municipality from being able to determine the causes of the incidents and take the corresponding measures.”
The deficiencies with the minutes of the Municipal Legislature, the lack of a regulation for trust personnel and a regulation for the use of biometric time clocks are other situations that the report flags as concerning.
The Office of Management and Budget must ensure that the Municipality of Lares complies with the Corrective Action Plan established by the Office of the Comptroller, the report concludes. The document covers the period from January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2022.
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