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The New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office has opened an investigation into an employee placed on leave nearly two weeks ago.
Brad Allen, an information technology employee, was put on leave June 24.
The inquiry comes in the wake of a security test IT experts underway on a new campaign finance system database that Allen had been working on for the past year.
Deputy Secretary of State Don Francisco Trujillo II confirmed Monday that the agency had started an inquiry into Allen based on information gleaned by the security test.
Trujillo did not mention Allen by name but acknowledged that the inquiry involves the only agency employee who is on paid leave, which is Allen. Previously the agency had said that Allen was not under suspicion despite being on leave.
When asked if the investigation involved law enforcement, Trujillo said, “We have begun an investigation which involves other agencies. I won’t discuss it any further.”
Allen said in an interview he was told at the Secretary of State’s office Monday morning that he would remain on paid administrative leave until the completion of an investigation. He said he did not find out what he was being investigated for despite having asked three times.
“This is total guessing, but I think that they are trying to cover themselves,” Allen said. “I think they are for political reasons trying to blame this is on someone. … It seems strange that they have me off two weeks, and today they start the investigation.”
The inquiry is the latest chapter in the agency’s troubles over the past two weeks that has involved its computer systems and website. The agency’s website was offline for more than a week, leading the agency to contract with outside IT experts who worked furiously to restore the agency’s computer systems.
The Secretary of State’s office includes systems that are necessary for the public to do all sorts of business, from accessing campaign and lobbyist information to registering trademarks and other dealings between businesses and state government.
Trujillo said Monday that most of the agency’s computer systems were back up and running.
It is unclear how the agency’s troubles and the new database Allen had been working on are related.
Allen had been tasked over the past year with building a new searchable campaign finance reporting database for the Secretary of State’s office, which would include reports filed by political candidates, elected officials, lobbyists and other public officials.
The agency’s current campaign finance reporting system does not allow the public to sift through information but requires users to pull up reports and then manually find data.
The new database would allow the public to determine, for example, what political candidates a person had given to by typing in a contributor’s name. Currently, a public user must go from report to report adding up the contributions.
Part of the work done by outside IT experts over the past two weeks has included trying to determine how much of the new system was built, Trujillo said. The consultants still had not determined whether a part of the system was completed that would allow political candidates to input their information.
Allen, for his part, said that he built the database and that he sent it out to several individuals in New Mexico.
“That’s the only proof that I have that I did the work,” Allen said Monday. “I don’t know what is going on.”
