Oversight Board raises more questions about Puerto Rico’s finances
2 min read
Puerto Rico is no closer to exiting external oversight after the release of its most recent audited financials.
That’s according to a letter the Puerto Rico Oversight Board sent to the commonwealth’s treasury earlier this month following the April release of Puerto Rico’s
“The university may not be able to avoid future defaults on its obligations,” said EY. “Management has plans to address the university’s liquidity situation and continue providing services,” the auditor said.
“The UPR going concern language is included due to the current standstill agreement between UPR and bondholders, which is driven by a technical compliance matter related to the flow of funds,” said Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority Executive Director Omar Marrero, who noted that the audited financials have contained the language for more than six years. “It is important to note that UPR is in full compliance with its debt service and is expected to continue doing such. The standstill has been extended 21 times and we are not concerned about any non-compliance or default in the future.”
The Puerto Rico Oversight Board “has given advice to consolidate the eleven campuses and to advertise in the United States but so far the administration continues to ignore it,” Mudd said.
UPR could go into PROMESA’s bankruptcy process but “I doubt it. And the government does not care about UPR,” he said.
“The Oversight Board is nowhere hated more than at the UPR,” said UPR political science professor José Garriga Picó, a former commonwealth senator. “Its efforts to have the university system reduce expenditures by closing outdated academic programs and the downsizing of its teaching and non-teaching staff generate a very educated vocal opposition to all the Oversight Board policies …. Administrators, professors, and students continually plan how to outwit the Oversight Board until PROMESA is repealed ahead of schedule.”
In his letter to Pérez Méndez, Mujica also said the board was concerned the auditor said they hadn’t been given enough information about the commonwealth government’s business type activities and unemployment insurance fund for the auditor to render a decision.
Finally, Mujica said the board “continues to be concerned” about the continued existence of deficiencies in internal controls.
“The Oversight Board has every right to be concerned [about these deficiencies],” Garriga Picó said. “Most politicians and government bureaucrats are just waiting for the day when they do not have an Oversight Board to deal with and can return to the old ways. Then you will know what disaster is.”
Spokespeople for Puerto Rico’s Treasury Department and governor did not respond to requests for a comment. FAFAA did not respond to requests for comments on Mujica’s concerns about the imbalanced fiscal 2022 audit results and delayed audit report.
