Comptroller DA-22-07: improper payments at OGP without a contract

The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico published Audit Report DA-22-07 on the Office of Management and Budget (OGP) on January 12, 2022. It issued a qualified opinion on fiscal operations tied to professional and consulting service contracts and diesel-fuel purchases: the noncompliance is significant, but not pervasive.

From the sample examined, the Comptroller found improper payments with no contract in between. OGP paid $2,732,221 to a private corporation for telecommunications services from March 31 to May 22, 2018 without a contract. It also paid $68,200 in rent to another private corporation to store property of the Office of the Commissioner of Municipal Affairs between 2017 and 2018, also without a contract.

The audit — four findings — notes that OGP paid $64,450 to a contractor above the maximum set in the contract and the $580,000 amendment. The services were assistance implementing Zero-Base Budgeting methodology across government. A similar situation had already been discussed in Report DA-12-33 of October 24, 2011.

Auditors found missing controls in fuel purchases: no list of authorized persons, no roster of OGP official vehicles and no corroboration of signatures and driver’s-license numbers, among others. Those failures, contrary to rules then in force, could have enabled improper use of public funds. A control finding is not a theft indictment.

Contrary to Act 75-2019 (Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Service), OGP executed three information-technology contracts in 2019 without PRITS evaluation or recommendation, denying that office a chance to review alignment with public policy or cost duplication. It also failed to file the reports required by Acts 66-2014 and 3-2017 on cutting annual spending on purchased or professional services by no less than 10% in each Executive Branch entity. The House certified in 2019 having received 33% of the reports; the Senate, 67%; the Governor’s Office had evidence of none as of that date.

The report covers January 1, 2015 through February 28, 2021. A qualified opinion and documented improper payments are not a criminal conviction or “theft” quantified beyond what the Comptroller’s release states.