Hector Balderas
State Auditor Hector Balderas plans to push legislation in January that would make it a crime to intentionally hinder an audit and would suspend state appropriations to government agencies that don’t complete required annual audits.
The auditor announced on Tuesday that he plans two bills in the legislative session that begins in January. The first would amend the Audit Act to make it unlawful to make a false, misleading or unfounded report to the state auditor and to intentionally hinder or obstruct an audit, special audit, examination or investigation.
Under the legislation, such an offense would be a misdemeanor.
“It’s imperative that individuals who obstruct audits be held accountable for their actions,” Balderas said in a news release. “The recent Jemez Mountain Public School embezzlement case is an example of a financial officer abusing their authority and allowing a school district to fall three years behind in the audit process. These negligent actions jeopardized the financial stability of an entire school district.”
“The passage of this law would discourage the obstruction of audits by penalizing individuals who commit this crime,” Balderas said.
The second bill would suspend appropriations to government agencies that have outstanding audits. In September, the state auditor released a list that included more than 80 governmental entities that had outstanding audits. Currently, the list has 61 agencies on it. Some 34 of those haven’t bothered to make arrangements with the state auditor to complete their required audits.
The auditor currently has no teeth to make governmental agencies comply with the state law that requires annual audits.
“Outstanding audits have been a longstanding problem in New Mexico, and no agency should be given public dollars when they haven’t accounted for what they have spent in the past year,” Balderas said. “This bill would deter government agencies from noncompliance with audit requirements.”
Because the upcoming session is 30 days, only items Gov. Bill Richardson puts on the call can be considered. Balderas’ release said the auditor’s office “has been working in cooperation with the Legislative Finance Committee and Governor Bill Richardson’s office to introduce the legislation this upcoming legislative session in January 2010.”