State Auditor Hector Balderas will keep a campaign pledge and ask legislators to fund two investigators to help his office took into allegations of public corruption, the Las Cruces Sun-News is reporting.
Completing audits that reveal potential public corruption has never been a problem but, with three of four special audits of governments in
So the audits were shelved.
Balderas wants to change that. The new investigators would be able to do most of the leg work before handing a case to prosecutors that’s mostly complete.
Former State Auditor Domingo Martinez asked legislators several times to provide help in the form of a special investigator and prosecutor in the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office, where legislators also fund a prosecutor to handle state tax cases, but legislators refused. There was no political will to fund positions that would thoroughly investigate the state’s leaders.
With the prosecution of the two previous state treasurers and other state Democratic scandals, times have changed. Balderas is a former legislator, and that experience will also help him gain support that
In addition to two investigators, Balderas wants two “constituent representatives,” the Sun-News reported, and would establish a hot line for the public to report fraud and corruption. He may also seek legislation setting the duties of investigators and clarifying the process of moving cases from his office to prosecutors.
Balderas told the newspaper the office already has a “whole host of cases” under review, but lacks the resources to properly investigate. Auditors, by training, can identify when something improper has happened, but do not investigate why it happened to determine whether a crime was committed.
Balderas said the budget increases already proposed by Gov. Bill Richardson and the Legislative Finance Committee would fund the new employees.