Articles

A report by the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico revealed that, from 2018 until the first semester of fiscal year 2021, the Regional Educational Office (ORE) of Ponce did not hold biddings for the acquisition of school transportation services.

During this period, the Office awarded 407 emergency contracts for $7,299,090, for this service.

The Internal Audit Office of the Department of Education had commented on a similar situation in 2018.

In addition, the audit points out that the contracts contained a clause that justified that due to the lack of a defined budget, it could not comply with the bidding process for the contracting of school transportation. Being an essential service, the Department then determined to use the emergency process.

From the examination carried out, it is concluded that the Office signed emergency contracts every six months during four consecutive fiscal years.

The Comptroller concludes that this situation fosters that certain suppliers benefit and that other offers are not evaluated.

“Act 3-2017, Act to Address the Economic, Fiscal and Budgetary Crisis to Guarantee the Functioning of the Government of Puerto Rico, is not a contractual excuse for not having carried out the corresponding biddings. On the contrary, the law is an additional reason to carry out the required bidding processes,” the report states.

The audit comments that the physical files of nine school transportation contracts awarded from August 7 to 12, 2019, for $1,021,925, could not be examined.

The superintendent notified that the files were located in one of the buildings affected by the earthquake of January 7, 2020, which could not be entered for health and safety reasons.

The Report recommends to the Secretary of Education that he issue instructions so that the regulation applicable to school transportation biddings is complied with. This first report of the Ponce ORE covers the period from January 1, 2017 to November 30, 2021, and is available at www.ocpr.gov.pr.