Column by the Comptroller
today December 20, 2018
Endi.com

The Comptroller's Referrals

Our Office was created more than 66 years ago. However, since 1901, the current function of the comptroller was carried out by an auditor, appointed by the President of the United States. Before I was confirmed in the position, six people had already held it. Each of them carried out and fulfilled their responsibilities in the best way they understood. With much respect to my predecessors and their vision, I imparted my own.

More than eight years have passed since my appointment as Comptroller of Puerto Rico, and we have transformed our processes and approaches to better serve the purpose of our mission.

Gone is the practice of publishing in three reports what could be said in one, to avoid this being interpreted as an attack on the audited unit or its officials. Gone is the practice of making our own the findings and situations that the unit itself had detected. Now, when they are important, we include them in the special comments section and give credit to the entity.

We have also left behind the practice of giving grades for an entity's internal controls, since this lent itself to political use. Not even the best controls can prevent fraud when someone has such bad intent. We continue to evaluate and audit them, but we do not give grades.

Despite the weight and presence of the Office of the Comptroller in public administration, there are individuals and sectors that still do not understand our constitutional responsibility. One of the essential functions of our Office is the practice of referring to the entities with jurisdiction those situations that we believe should be considered by the competent entities.

When we make a referral of situations, and with the exception of referrals to the Office of Government Ethics, it is accompanied by a legal memorandum prepared by our legal advisors. Our enabling act provides that the Office “shall have its own legal service.” And what is this for? So that it is our own independent legal advisors (16) who determine, from a legal standpoint, whether or not there is compliance with the laws. The auditors detect the failures, but it is our legal advisors who advise me on whether the matter should be referred. The final determination will always be my responsibility. When a referral does not result in an accusation or the imposition of a fine, it cannot be concluded that it was not correct.

The truth is that it is our responsibility to point out the noncompliance. It is not within our control if, due to public policy considerations, lack of financial or human capital resources, or other reasons unrelated to public service, our referrals end without consequence. We have seen how trivialized laws have become that were approved for the protection of public funds and property.

Nor do we have control over the time that the entities with jurisdiction take to conclude their investigation and file charges. We are often asked why we take so long to publish a report with an indication of possible fraud. The answer is that the case was referred, it is under investigation by a competent authority, and the report cannot be published until the entity allows us to do so.

The greatest power that the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico has is to audit, question, and review any transaction carried out with public funds or property. This power applies not only to government entities, but to any private entity that receives an allocation of public funds.

The Office of the Comptroller does not make public the names and other details of the referrals until the entity to which the referral is made determines it. It is outside our control if someone uses our reports to play politics or damage reputations.

We will thus continue fulfilling our mission and making our referrals to the entities that correspond in a fair and objective manner. We will continue with the integrity that characterizes our oversight work.