We include the article published in the twelfth edition of the Bulletin of the Central American and Caribbean Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (OCCEFS) in the Puerto Rico section.
The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico, from the very day the hurricane passed, has remained active in Puerto Rico's recovery process, and has offered help and guidance on the proper and correct use of public funds and property during and after the emergency.
On September 20, 2017, Puerto Rico was significantly impacted by Hurricane Maria1 . The hurricane destroyed much of the Country's infrastructure and affected the supply of essential services, such as water and electricity. In addition, as a direct consequence of this hurricane's passage, the Island's communications systems were severely affected. The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico, from the very day the hurricane passed, has remained active in Puerto Rico's recovery process, and has offered help and guidance on the proper and correct use of public funds and property during and after the emergency. This represents a unique opportunity to serve from another perspective, aligned with the Office's mission.
The Office of the Comptroller launched two initiatives. The first was the Maria Oversight Project. For this Project, more than 200 auditors were mobilized and given the responsibility of conducting visits to all the municipalities, government entities, public corporations, demographic registries, collection offices, regional offices of the Department of the Family, and schools of our country, in order to obtain information on the damage caused by Hurricane Maria. They also evaluated the administrative controls established for handling the emergency by the government entities and offered guidance on the processes to follow in the use of public funds and property amid the lack of electricity and communications networks.
On the visits carried out, our Office's personnel helped with packing food and distributing it. They also served as liaisons to channel, through the corresponding agencies, the requests for help made by the officials or employees of the government entities, as well as private citizens, to address some of the needs that arose during this emergency period.
The Office of the Comptroller collaborated with the Department of Consumer Affairs (DACO), at the request of that agency's Secretary, in overseeing the orders issued for freezing the prices of essential items and the profit margin established for gasoline, diesel, and liquefied gas. On this assignment, our auditors visited 365 gas stations and 248 businesses, and issued 58 notices of infraction.
The information on the work carried out in this first initiative will be published shortly.
…at the Office of the Comptroller we will be attentive to the proper use of public funds and property during this emergency period and the processes that the Country's government entities consequently follow. Transparency is an indispensable element in public administration and it must prevail at all times.
The other initiative was a social responsibility project to help the elderly called the Elderly Task Force, in which volunteers from our Office collaborated together with State and Federal government law enforcement agencies and representation from private enterprise. Through this effort, food, essential items, and personal hygiene products were brought to 16,330 elderly people, located in care homes and residences across the Island. The comptroller, Hon. Yesmin M. Valdivieso, took part every Tuesday and Thursday, from October to December 2017, in meetings to coordinate the work established under this initiative. Feeling the joy and gratitude in the smiles of the elderly and of all those impacted on each visit compensated for the great effort of the entire team and drove us to keep moving forward with the assignment.
On the other hand, the Comptroller of Puerto Rico understood the emergency situation in which our Island found itself and the lack of basic services, and issued several circular letters to the government entities to grant extensions on the deadlines for registering and submitting copies of the contracts being formalized; extensions were granted for sending corrective action plans and the complementary and monthly reports, the registration of losses or irregularities in the handling of public funds, and the exemption from sending required special reports. The circular letters are available in the Circular Letters section, on the Office of the Comptroller's website, www.ocpr.gov.pr.
Our Office continues to support the recovery efforts on our Island. Although several months have passed since Hurricane Maria, our Puerto Rico continues in the process of rebuilding and restoring the infrastructure and basic essential services for the population. Nonetheless, in fulfillment of our ministerial duty, at the Office of the Comptroller we will be attentive to the proper use of public funds and property during this emergency period and the processes that the Country's government entities consequently follow. Transparency is an indispensable element in public administration and it must prevail at all times.
See the OCCEFS semiannual Bulletin, twelfth edition.
1. On September 6, Puerto Rico was also impacted by Hurricane Irma, which affected the infrastructure.
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