‘Whistleblower’ act needs thought

At Flintco we are gratified that a jury has ruled in our favor on all counts after we were sued by a team of labor unions under the state’s recently enacted “Fraud Against Taxpayers Act.”

This verdict marks the first time under this new state law that a civil case has come full cycle, and the results suggest it may be time for the Legislature to take a second look at what it has created.

The act’s purpose is to give taxpayers a venue through which to fight theft. The incentive to do so, besides just being a good Samaritan, is that a citizen who wins such a lawsuit can earn up to 30 percent of any judgment.

This new “whistleblower” act is in addition to the usual watchdogs of taxpayer interest, the Attorney General’s Office, the state auditor and the U.S. attorney when there is federal jurisdiction.

The act has essentially opened up civil law enforcement to private citizens much the same way the Old West had its wanted posters, complete with their big rewards or bounties.

Unfortunately, such a “bounty” system is very prone to abuse, as we can well attest. We just spent a considerable sum over the last two plus years defending ourselves from groups that can easily be considered to have axes to grind, and which also stand to earn millions of dollars in reward money should they somehow have been able to convince a jury of a fraud.

In our case it did not take a jury long to vindicate us on all counts. But the whole process took a great deal from us in terms of time and resources, none of which we are going to get back. This process could have put a great, smaller company into bankruptcy.

We believe it’s time for lawmakers to seriously reconsider the Wild West bounty system it has created to pursue fraud and corruption in the state. Failure to do so is going to make New Mexico a less attractive place to do business and that will only further escalate costs to taxpayers, especially for major projects.

Perhaps it’s not all we would like to see in terms of fighting fraud, but between the attorney general and the U.S. attorney, major statewide and state level officials have been successfully tried and convicted for various frauds over the past few years and there has been economic recoupment for taxpayers along the way as well.

Negative publicity is also inarguably bad for business, despite the fact that we are a company that has been doing great work and earning our excellent reputation in New Mexico for 76 years.

We grew to be one of the largest commercial contractors in the nation by bringing value added services and facilities to taxpayers.

Perhaps at some point in the near future our opinion of this new Fraud Against Taxpayers Act will be proven wrong because some good will have come to taxpayers from it. As taxpayers ourselves, we would certainly welcome such an outcome.

But we are not holding our breath, either.

Meanwhile, the act will no doubt continue to enable needless and unwarranted harm to good reputations as it damages the state’s attractiveness to the best producers and job creators.

So we hope lawmakers will not forget they put it on the books and will revisit it sooner than later.