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SANTA FE — An audit released Tuesday of the secretary of state’s office under Rebecca Vigil-Giron adds to the body of evidence of shoddy bookkeeping, state procurement code violations and general rule-breaking during her tenure leading the agency.
The Office of the State Auditor released the report, which was completed in July, to go with an already hefty paper record of the significant problems surrounding Vigil-Giron’s leadership at the secretary of state’s office. In fact, many of the findings in Tuesday’s audit covered the same ground as a federal audit that was released last year.
But Tuesday’s audit did reveal a few findings that either received minor billing in last year’s audit or weren’t mentioned at all.
In one example, according to the audit conducted by Albuquerque-based Atkinson & Co., the secretary of state’s office cost New Mexico $219,000 due to a breach of contract with high-tech giant Oracle USA Inc. In a costly oversight, the office used 12 computer processors over three years to work on the state’s Voter Registration Election Management system, instead of the four processors the state agency was licensed to use.
“As a result, for fiscal years 2005, 2006 and 2007, the Secretary of State’s office paid Oracle processor software licensing fees for only four servers instead of twelve,” the audit reports. “The result was the discovery of an outstanding balance due in the amount of $219,765.”
Secretary of State Mary Herrera, who succeeded Vigil-Giron, has paid Oracle roughly $182,000 of that bill, but an outstanding balance of more than $36,000 remains, the audit said.
Also, according to the audit, the secretary of state’s office under Vigil-Giron misspent $29,735 in federal election money from July 1, 2006, to December 31, 2006, to enhance its own Web site. The federal money was supposed to have been spent only on election issues, such as provisional voting, voting information, statewide voter database and voter identification of first-time voters, the audit found.
And in still another example, Vigil-Giron’s office purchased mobile voting booths for $124,500 without a competitive sealed bid, violating the state’s procurement code. There also was no purchase order — a record to prove the booths were needed — to go with the expenditure.
The audit also found occasions when the secretary of state’s office canceled purchase orders in the state’s purchasing system but did not cancel the orders with vendors. In essence, the office spent money to buy goods and services that weren’t accounted for by purchase orders.
“The audit’s multiple findings demonstrate the severe mismanagement of federal funds that were intended to improve voter education in New Mexico,” State Auditor Hector Balderas said Tuesday. “The inability of the auditors to express an opinion on the secretary of state office’s financial condition and the poor accountability for federal funds puts the operations of the secretary of state at serious risk.”
Balderas said in a press release that he will refer the audit, which was completed in July, to the New Mexico attorney general’s office, the Election Assistance Commission and the FBI.
Vigil-Giron, reached by telephone Tuesday, said she had no response to the report, but asked about the timing of its release by the state auditor’s office to news media.
Vigil-Giron was secretary of state from 1999 through 2006, and also served in the same office from 1987 to 1991.
Last year, Vigil-Giron ran unsuccessfully as a candidate in the Democratic primary for the Albuquerque-based 1st Congressional District.
“This is old news,” Vigil-Giron said of the July completion date for the audit. “What is their political motivation for releasing this seven months after the exit conference?”
Asked to answer her own question, Vigil-Giron declined.
The Independent was unable to reach Balderas on Tuesday.
$6 million in question
The audit released Tuesday drew heavily on an earlier 36-page report compiled by the inspector general of the Federal Election Assistance Commission.
That audit questioned a 17 percent administrative fee, or $1 million, that Vigil-Giron paid to contractor Armando Gutierrez of Albuquerque-based A. Gutierrez & Associates, Inc. Ultimately, Gutierrez was paid more than $6 million for voter education work by the secretary of state’s office.
Gutierrez & Associates produced TV and radio advertisements prominently featuring then-Secretary of State Vigil-Giron that ran by the thousands in English, Spanish and Navajo leading up to the 2004 general and 2006 primary and general elections.
That work netted Gutierrez & Associates roughly a third of all federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) money sent to New Mexico to assist in planning and running the 2004 and 2006 federal elections, according to the audit.
Despite that, the federal audit found that the Albuquerque firm could account for only $2.6 million in spending for 44,500 spots of the roughly $4.8 million budgeted for production and voter education, according to state documents and the summary of the audit findings.
The federal audit also found an Aug. 26, 2004, letter between Vigil-Giron and Gutierrez that changed how Gutierrez was to be paid originally — three hourly rates — to a 17 percent administrative fee. The federal audit also found that the state attorney general’s office did not review the letter.
The attorney general’s office, which is legally bound to review state agency contracts, told federal auditors that the office “had not reviewed the August 26 letter as a part of their review of the contract or the amendments.”
Problems have resulted for the state due to the federal audit, the biggest of them being that the state is on the hook to the feds for $6 million. Nearly all the $6 million that the Election Assistance Commission found to be improperly billed to the federal government from 2004 through 2006 related to the voter-education contract Vigil-Giron signed with A. Gutierrez & Associates in 2004.
In addition to the federal audit, Vigil-Giron’s tenure as secretary of state is under a microscope, with a spokesman for Attorney General Gary King — who was not in office during the period reviewed by the federal audit — saying last month that Vigil-Giron is being investigated in her former role as secretary of state.
The audit released Tuesday shone a light on other failings.
For example, the Nebraska-based firm that supplied New Mexico with $18 million in voting equipment didn’t deliver all the equipment the state purchased, the audit released Tuesday found. The equipment not delivered included 25 bins, 101 PBMCIA cards and eight newer generation voting machines made for disabled voters.
A call to a spokesperson for the firm, ES&S, was not immediately returned.
The audit released Tuesday also revealed that the secretary of state’s office didn’t prepare its own financial statements, instead relying on the state auditor to do that. As a result, current Secretary of State Mary Herrera hired a chief financial officer in mid 2008, the audit noted.
In a statement, Herrera thanked Balderas for the audit and its findings.
“My office has initiated a bill which would release taxpayers from having to pay back 6.3 million dollars to the federal government,” Herrera said. “We are hopeful that the Legislature passes this bill. New Mexicans should be protected. We commend the efforts of State Auditor Hector Balderas and Atkinson & Co. in procuring the audit.”
