The Citizens’ Commission for the Comprehensive Audit of Public Credit expressed this Thursday its concern about the Resolution of Chamber 63, which seeks to delegate the audit of public debt to the Office of the Comptroller.
“The Comptroller’s Office does not have the tools to conduct a forensic audit of the debt, as needed, because its experience has been with compliance audits. In addition, the current Comptroller, Yesmín Valdivieso, has expressed against and constantly refused to conduct a debt audit for more than five years “said José González Taboada, CPA and Professor at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) in Accounting and a member of the Commission.
On the other hand, the lawyer Nylca Muñoz, lawyer and professor of law, added that “there is a conflict of interest with the Department of Justice to whom the measure assigns technical support tasks in the audit. Several of the issues of bonds have an opinion of the Secretary of Justice certifying their legality and many of these issues were issued in violation of the Constitution as noted in pre-audits and by the Fiscal Control Board itself. our Commission, the debt audit means assigning responsibility and answering for all the actions and omissions that led us to the worst fiscal crisis on the island and the biggest bankruptcy under U.S. government jurisdiction. “
“Although the measure refers to the Department of Justice in the face of illegal debt findings, we are concerned that the claim to promote the cancellation of illegal debt through this mechanism will become academic, particularly given that, while announcing this project, La Fortalesa and AAFAF support that the Fiscal Control Board submit a new Debt Adjustment Plan to the Federal Court that seeks to restructure, not cancel, the debt of the Spanish Government, “he added González Taboada.
The members of the Commission also questioned that the measure does not include language that classifies as public all the information related to this audit, and that it does not have mechanisms of transparency and citizen participation in the audit process. Another shortcoming of the draft Resolution is the meager budget allocated to audit 70 years of debt with only 1 million, when the Commission created by Law had a budget of 5 million in expenses and the Board paid Kobre & Kim $ 16 million to study just a handful of emissions.
We welcome any proposal to carry out an independent audit of public debt. However, it cannot be a symbolic or futile exercise but a comprehensive, independent, transparent audit with broad citizen participation so that it has credibility with the people.
The Commission is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to conduct a comprehensive audit of public credit for the benefit of the people of Puerto Rico. This Commission, of a strictly citizen nature, will continue the work initiated by the Commission for the Comprehensive Audit of Public Credit created by Law 97 of 2015, which was eliminated in 2017.