Auditor Slams Handling of Funds (More NM Corruption)

Albuquerque Journal ^ | February 18,2009 | Colleen Heild

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Poor accounting of how federal money was spent by then-Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron's office has left state-hired auditors unable to say whether the current Secretary of State's Office is financially stable.
    State Auditor Hector Balderas, who on Tuesday released an audit on the finances of the agency, said the problems amounted to "severe mismanagement of federal funds."

 

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Lingering questions involving the expenditure of nearly $6.3 million for a voter education campaign by Vigil-Giron in 2004 and 2006 continues to impact the current administration, the state audit found.
    "I'm still extremely concerned," Balderas told the Journal on Tuesday. "The overall fiscal management was called into question and our auditors were just not confident enough to give them a clean bill of health."
    A separate federal audit released last year couldn't account for more than $3 million of the $6.3 million paid by Vigil-Giron to media consulting firm A. Gutierrez and Associates.
    Vigil-Giron's agency apparently made upfront payments to the consultant and didn't require detailed receipts for the work done.

 

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 Vigil-Giron, who now works for the state's Department of Workforce Solutions, dismissed the new state audit as politically motivated.
    "This is old news," she said. "Why release an audit report that's seven months old, two years after I'm gone?"
    The audit reiterated federal findings that consultant Gutierrez was paid in excess of the maximum amount allowed under the contract with Vigil-Giron's agency by more than $323,060.
    The contract arrangement itself appeared to violate state procurement law, the federal audit found.

 

[greyfoxx39]

Another democrat. Need I say more?

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[greyfoxx39]

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[Army Air Corps]

Gee, I wonder if King Bill got in on the action.

[CPT Clay]

Democrat corruption in the one party state of New Mexico?

Sheesh knock me over with a feather.

[Lurker]

A. Gutierrez and Associates.

Any relation to Congressman Gutierrez I wonder?

[kittymyrib]

Check with ACORN. The missing funds were probably used for their “voter education “ project in changing NM from a red state to a blue state for BO. This is how the entire southwest will be run in the future when Mexicans take over.

[Fred Hayek]

Rebecca Vigil-Giron - any relation to Robert Vigil, the former state treasurer and now resident of the Federal Prison in Bastrop, TX? Feds got him on a major “pay-to-play”.

[greyfoxx39]

I'm not knowledgeable of the intra-family relations of the corrupt dems in New Mexico.

We have a FReeper who is "in the know" on what goes on in state government....Rogle?

Are Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Robert related? Are Armando Gutierrez and Joni Gutierrez related?

[Rogle]

No Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Robert are not related and I am not sure of the relation between Armando and Joni Gutierrez.

It has been reported that Rebecca Vigil-Giron spent $30,000 on the Secretary of State Web page. The sad thing is that I think it was even more than that. The State Legislature had also sunk money into that web site so that candidates could file their financial report electronically and the public could view those reports electronically within 24 hours. That however, has not happened.

[greyfoxx39]

Thanks for the info, Rogle.

Was it Rebecca who had all the PSAs for the state running that were actually campaign commercials for her, or was it Patsy Madrid?

[Rogle]

Yes she would be the one. I must say that I knew her from my days at the Legislature and she was not the most bipartisan.