I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Gov. Bill Richardson refused Friday to answer whether he or anyone in his administration had sent the message out for state agencies to hire Albuquerque-based Meyners + Company to do auditing work.
The Independent asked Richardson that question twice during a press conference Friday. Both times the governor threw up his hands, shrugged and said nothing.
The Independent reported earlier this week that state records show the Albuquerque-based auditing firm headed by Education Retirement Board Chairman Bruce Malott has grown from a bit player to a powerhouse in New Mexico government while Richardson has been governor.
Since Richardson took office in 2003, Meyners has won nearly $7.8 million in public auditing contracts, according to state records, compared to $274,000 in such work the firm did in the five years prior to 2003.
Malott is a Richardson friend who was treasurer of Richardson’s 2002 gubernatorial primary campaign and has since been appointed to a number of state boards. Another principal in Malott’s firm, Reta D. Jones, acted as treasurer for Richardson’s gubernatorial bid in 2006, as well as his presidential campaign, election records show.
Records for the last year available — fiscal 2008 – show that Meyners + Company performed 21 state, county and municipal government audits and received $2.3 million in payment. The year before, the firm took in $2 million in fees for 20 audits. Here are the records for fiscal 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002.
Since 2003, Meyners has also audited many of the state’s largest agencies, including the corrections, health and general services departments, and the state’s largest county — Bernalillo — as well as a few municipalities and villages.
Prior to Richardson’s election as governor, by contrast, Meyners appeared to have barely been in the government auditing business. From fiscal year 1998 through 2002, the firm performed one public audit a year, receiving from $21,163 to $75,655 in annual fees. Its only public client for three of those years — fiscal 1998, 1999 and 2000 — was the Department of Education, since renamed the Public Education Department, records show.
In 2001, the firm audited the Roswell Independent School District. A year later, it audited the Commission for the Blind, state records show.
The firm also audited the Region III and Region VII housing authorities, which crumbled in scandal in 2006 after the Albuquerque-based Region III authority defaulted on $5 million in bonds it owed the state.
Malott is currently facing allegations from former state investment officer Frank Foy that Malott pressured him to make investments in a deal that ultimately lost the state nearly $90 million.
Foy has further charged in a 26-page civil complaint that Malott has used his post to generate a lucrative business in state contracts for his firm.
Meyners’ attorney labeled Foy’s accusations “absolutely false” on Tuesday and said the firm had gotten more work because of its expertise in government auditing.
