The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Peter St. Cyr)
The House easily approved a bill today that would punish government agencies that don’t submit timely audits by temporarily withholding some of their funding.
The bill now heads to the Senate, with less than 24 hours until the session ends.
House Bill 228, sponsored by Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela, D-Santa Fe, passed on a vote of 60-5. The legislation would require that the state Department of Finance and Administration temporarily withhold funding to a state agency that has failed to submit required audits to the state auditor.
The bill was sought by State Auditor Hector Balderas, who in September released a list of dozens of state agencies that hadn’t submitted annual and compliance audits as required by law. Even after doing that, many of the agencies ignored Balderas’ call to come into compliance with the law.
Under current law, Balderas has no recourse in that situation. This bill would change that.