Hector Balderas
State Auditor Hector Balderas announced today that the 2009 Albuquerque Public Schools financial audit contained 378 findings, the vast majority of which indicate “poor financial management and failure to adhere to internal controls in many of the district’s charter schools.”
“The recent audits of the Jemez Mountain and Mora School Districts have highlighted that sound fiscal management of public school funds must be a priority,” Balderas said in the release. “It’s critical that the state’s largest school district correct these troubling trends in order to prevent fraud and the inappropriate use of public funds.”
Of the 378 findings in the audit, which was performed by Moss Adams, more than 120 were identified in previous years but had not been corrected. Balderas called upon the governing bodies of APS and those charter schools identified by the audit to reduce risks to public school funds and work together to address the findings.
“In these difficult economic times, it’s imperative that school districts manage funds responsibly, and I will continue to highlight areas of concern,” Balderas said. “My office will continue to partner with APS and the district’s charter schools to strengthen their fiscal accountability.”
The charter schools named as having significant findings were Christine Duncan, The Learning Community, Academia de Lengua y Cultura, La Academia de Esperanza, La Resolana Leadership Academy, Corrales International and Albuquerque Talent Development. The findings included non-approved journal entries and overall issues relating to cash controls.
More specifically, for certain schools the findings cited included no receipts completed for cash received; no evidence of payroll registers having authorization or review sign offs; invoices not being approved before they were paid; cell phones that were paid for contractors without monitoring personal use; not following proper procurement procedures for competitive bidding on contracts; and no segregation of duties when preparing and depositing money.