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.
Less than a month after Jemez Mountain School District embezzler Kathy Borrego‘s suicide in Abiquiu, a former Lovington School District employee will be arraigned for embezzlement on the other end of the state.
Jamie Ann Moore, 43, faces 12 counts of embezzlement and one count of identity theft, according to court records. Moore is charged with embezzling more than $15,000 by writing 10 District checks between May and December 2009.
In sheer scope, that hardly compares with Borrego’s $3.4 million embezzlement.
But Moore’s alleged crimes could be just the tip of the iceberg, suggests a May 11 letter State Auditor Hector Balderas sent to Lovington schools Superintendent Steven O’Quinn and school board members.
And Lovington is just one of five New Mexico school districts Balderas has designated as “at risk” of fraud because they have failed to complete state-mandated audits. Other school districts fail to maintain basic internal controls to prevent fraud and theft, according to recent audit findings reviewed by The Independent.
Discrepancies, missing records plague Lovington district finances
Spending at the Lovington School District exceeded its budget by $1.4 million and at least 25 District funds have unexplained differences between beginning fund balances and ending prior year balances, Balderas wrote in a May 11 letter to O’Quinn and the Lovington Municipal School Board.
The state auditor’s office has completed a risk review of the District’s 2004 to 2007 finances, in which auditors identified numerous financial discrepancies and an absence of internal financial controls and record keeping that “creates severe risks for fraud and misappropriation of taxpayer funds.”
Balderas expressed “grave concern” over the school district’s financial records, which he described as being in a state of disarray.
“The District’s lack of fiscal transparency creates severe risks for fraud,” Balderas wrote. “Put bluntly, this deeply alarming trend cannot be tolerated.”
As far back as 2003, the Lovington School District’s audits have revealed incomplete and erroneous bank account reconciliations, Balderas noted.
The situation with missing records was so bad that in 2007, the District’s independent contract accountant was unable to complete a state-mandated annual audit, Balderas wrote.
“The (auditor) was prevented from performing any audit work on the District’s financial statements for all financial activities,” Balderas wrote. “Since the District does not have records available to substantiate account balances, no one can give any certainty or reliability about the source and use of public funds used by the District. It is unknown how much cash the District has in any particular account at any particular time, whether the District has paid its bills, or whether the District is making expenditures appropriately.”
The Independent has requested information from O’Quinn, including the dates of Moore’s employment at the District.
Borrego pled guilty to embezzlement charges in February and died in an apparent suicide May 8.
Moore is free on $20,000 bond pending her scheduled May 24 arraignment.
Numerous schools, districts at risk
Lovington School District is one of five New Mexico school districts Balderas has designated as “at risk” for fraud and misappropriation based on their failures to submit state-mandated audits since 2007, according to records provided to The Independent.
The other school districts on the “at risk” list are the Cuba, Floyd, Jemez Valley and Vaughn school districts, Auditor’s office records show. Jemez Valley School District serves Jemez Pueblo and is a different district than Jemez Mountain, where Borrego had been employed.
But even some schools that have completed recent audits are at risk, those audits show.
Several Albuquerque charter schools and the Bernalillo School District, among others, have audit findings revealing inadequate internal controls to prevent fraud, The Independent has found.
Schools and districts sometimes fail to document where money is spent. Some schools are unable to locate purchase orders or contracts, audits show. Some allow a single individual to authorize and write checks, and then to enter the expenditures into the financial ledger, with little or no oversight by other officials, audits show.
Poor management of school finances and resulting opportunities for embezzlement are a longstanding problem for New Mexico.
In 2000, for example, former Las Cruces School District secretary Mary Vernon pled guilty to 41 counts of fraud stemming to her theft of $30,000 from disabled students’ funds and falsified purchase orders.
In 2005, former Bernalillo elementary school principal Paula Curley pled no contest to several counts of embezzlement stemming from her abuse of a school credit card.
In 2006, a former principal of Gallup Junior High School pled guilty to embezzlement in a case stemming from $65,000 stolen from a student activities fund.
The Independent has obtained 2009 audits for a dozen New Mexico school districts and has filed public records requests for financial records from public schools and school districts.
