Former SOS says recently-released audit is severely flawed and that its promotion by the state auditor is politically motivated
Former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron is blaming politics for a recently released audit that found severe mismanagement of federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds by her administration — an audit she says is severely flawed.
Because of that, she is requesting that the firm that completed the audit, Atkinson & Co., retract, correct and reissue the audit.
“I hope that this information and request does not fall on deaf ears and that my Detractors cease in their conspiracy to destroy me and all the good service that I have given to the state of New Mexico,” Vigil-Giron wrote in a letter she mailed to Atkinson on Monday.
In the eight-page letter, Vigil-Giron alleges that Atkinson was “set up to assist in destroying my reputation.” She also writes that State Auditor Hector Balderas has sensationalized the firm’s audit report “for political gain,” possibly because he has a desire to run for higher office.
Vigil-Giron’s letter includes a lengthy response to each of the findings in the audit of the secretary of state’s office for the 2006-2007 fiscal year. You can read the letter here and the Atkinson audit here.
In the letter she sent Monday, Vigil-Giron took issue with a number of findings in the Atkinson audit. Among her charges:
• No one from the company contacted her in the course of the audit, she wrote, so the audit “is missing critical information that would have helped to establish accurate conclusions. … Because of your inattention to one of the CPA’s key principles of objectivity this Audit is fatally flawed and should not be accepted as worthy of your Company’s seal.”
• The Atkinson audit pulls much of its information from a preliminary report from the EAC, not the final report, Vigil-Giron wrote. The “negative tone of that Preliminary Draft,” she wrote, “… should have been a red flag to your Auditors that you were being set up to assist in destroying my reputation and to cast doubt on the federal funds that were appropriately expended.”
• The state auditor’s news release announcing the release of the Atkinson audit last month was “troublesome,” Vigil-Giron’s letter states. “The State Auditor went to great lengths to sensationalize the findings,” she wrote. “The timing and necessity of a press release, nearly 8 months after the audit was completed, is suspicious to say the least. Could this be because he has expressed an interest in running for a higher office?”
Balderas stands by audit
Balderas said in response to the Vigil-Giron letter that he stands by the Atkinson audit.
“The report was thoroughly reviewed by my office,” Balderas said in a statement released by his office. “First and foremost, I have an obligation to protect New Mexican taxpayer dollars. The HAVA federal grant was intended to support voter education, and I believe the audit competently reported the mismanagement of millions of dollars by the former secretary of state’s office.”
An Atkinson official has not returned a phone call seeking comment.
The audit was released a month ago by Balderas’ office. In the accompanying news release, Balderas said the audit’s findings “demonstrate the severe mismanagement of federal funds that were intended to improve voter education in New Mexico.”
Vigil-Giron responded at the time by questioning the timing of the release by Balderas of an audit that was completed last summer. Balderas’ office said in response that the release of hundreds of annual government audits — including the audit of the secretary of state’s office — came in February, “at the completion of the review season.”
The audit adds to the body of evidence indicating that Vigil-Giron’s administration mismanaged $6.3 million in federal funds. Much of what’s contained in the audit is based on a prior report from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) Office of the Inspector General, including the primary finding that Vigil-Giron improperly used federal funds to pay the Albuquerque firm Gutierrez & Associates $6.3 million for advertising and voter education work leading up to the 2006 election. The company can’t account for how $3 million of that money was spent. That situation is under investigation by the attorney general.
Vigil-Giron has repeatedly insisted that no wrongdoing occurred on her watch.