{"id":4341,"date":"2009-03-13T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-13T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/state-auditor-reviewing-meyners-housing-audits\/"},"modified":"2009-03-13T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-13T06:01:00","slug":"state-auditor-reviewing-meyners-housing-audits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/state-auditor-reviewing-meyners-housing-audits\/","title":{"rendered":"State auditor reviewing Meyners’ housing audits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Balderas\u2019 office is examining why the audits didn\u2019t find the widespread problems that crippled most of the housing authority system<\/span><\/p>\n

State Auditor Hector Balderas<\/a> says his office is conducting a review of why several independent audits of the state\u2019s affordable housing system turned up none of the widespread problems that led to its scandalous and nearly total collapse in 2006.<\/p>\n

As I reported earlier this week<\/a>, the five audits, completed by the firm Meyners + Company<\/a>, didn\u2019t flag any of the major problems that preceded the Albuquerque-based Region III Housing Authority\u2019s default on $5 million in bonds it owed the state. The state auditor<\/a> and State Investment Council<\/a> have both since released damning reports about the operations of the housing authorities during the time Meyners was conducting its audits.<\/p>\n

Balderas said in a statement released by his office on Thursday that the housing authority special audits conducted by his office \u201crevealed the startling extent to which bond money was misspent and the public trust was compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, I am concerned about the accuracy and transparency of the financial reporting on the regional housing authorities in the years previous to my administration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Balderas said his office has been conducting an ongoing \u201cquality control review\u201d since May 2008 of the housing authority audits conducted by Meyers. He didn\u2019t say when he expects his office to complete the review, which was not announced to the public before Thursday.<\/p>\n

The housing authority scandal is also the subject of a criminal investigation by the attorney general\u2019s office. One of the topics the AG is considering is why the Meyners audits were not completed in a timely manner.<\/p>\n

\u2018Taxpayers are entitled to truthful reporting\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

In my Monday article, Meyners attorney Sam Bregman said the financial audits<\/a> conducted by Meyners weren\u2019t intended to serve as much more rigorous inquiries known as forensic audits<\/a>. He said Meyners did its job and, when it did turn up problems in 2006, ceased working on the audits and notified the state auditor.<\/p>\n

However, though financial audits are less rigorous than forensic audits, the state auditor rule<\/a> — which lays out requirements of firms that audit government agencies in New Mexico — makes clear that financial audits are nonetheless expected to help root out fraud, waste and abuse.<\/p>\n

Problems with the housing authorities had been widespread since at least 2004, and the Meyners audits conducted in 2004 and 2005 revealed none of the problems that led to the collapse of most of the system in 2006.<\/p>\n

In Thursday\u2019s statement, Balderas said contractors who conduct government audits \u201cshould strictly adhere to government auditing standards in order to provide independent and objective financial analyses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Mexico\u2019s taxpayers are entitled to truthful reporting on the actions and financial well-being of their government agencies,\u201d Balderas said.<\/p>\n

Bregman said Thursday that he had no comment on the state auditor\u2019s review of the Meyners audits \u201cother than to say that their audits were done in an appropriate, complete manner.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Balderas\u2019 office is examining why the audits didn\u2019t find the widespread problems that crippled most of the housing authority system State Auditor Hector Balderas says his office is conducting a review of why several independent audits of the state\u2019s affordable housing system turned up none of the widespread problems that led to its scandalous and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}