State auditor’s office says release on Tuesday was routine
Former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron is questioning the timing of the Tuesday release of an audit that was completed last summer and slammed her administration’s handling of federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds.
But the state auditor’s office says the audit is being made public along with hundreds of others this month following the office’s annual review period for such audits, and there’s nothing unusual about it.
The audit, which I reported about when the state auditor released it on Tuesday, was completed in July and adds to the body of evidence indicating that Vigil-Giron’s administration severely mismanaged $6.3 million in federal funds. State Auditor Hector Balderas announced in a Tuesday news release that he had forwarded the audit to three investigatory agencies, including the attorney general, who is already scrutinizing the situation.
“Can you believe that they waited more than seven months to release this report! What timing!” Vigil-Giron wrote in an e-mail. “What was (Balderas’) motivation? I responded to every one of the exceptions that they mentioned to (the Department of Finance and Administration) in early 2007 and to the (U.S. Election Assistance Commission) in 2007 and 2008. This is old news that has already been answered.”
Most of the audit’s findings were revealed in an earlier audit conducted by the election assistance commission. The audit released Tuesday was the regular, annual audit of the secretary of state’s office for the 2006-2007 fiscal year, and was conducted by Atkinson and Co.
Caroline Buerkle, spokeswoman for the state auditor, said the state auditor’s office received the report from Atkinson on Sept. 2 of last year. It was released Tuesday, along with hundreds of other government agency audit reports, “at the completion of the review season” that ended on Feb. 1.
Why a news release for this one and not the other hundreds of audits?
“There was public interest in this audit due to the previous federal audit concerning the management of the federal HAVA fund, and it was important to update the public on the overall financial condition of this agency,” Buerkle said.
Vigil-Giron has repeatedly insisted in the past that no wrongdoing occurred on her watch.