E-mail Story
Print Friendly
Send E-mail
Reprint story
Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Valles Caldera Plays Catch-Up on Audits
By Raam Wong
Journal Staff Writer
No one has been auditing the books at the Valles Caldera National Preserve since its inception in 2000, officials revealed Wednesday.
Officials called it an oversight that grew out of frequent personnel changes during the formative years of the Valles Caldera Trust, a government corporation that receives about $3.5 million annually from Congress.
Federal law required the trust to obtain independent financial audits and report them to Congress. But that never happened, even after a government watchdog raised the issue in 2005.
"It just got by (preserve officials) due to the multiple changes made in the trustees and the staff," said Gary Bratcher, who became the trust's fourth executive director earlier this year. "It was just one of those things that wasn't passed down from one administration to the next."
The Government Accountability Office first reported in November 2005 that the trust had failed to obtain the audits. But it wasn't until 2007 that the preserve's board of trustees contracted out to audit fiscal years 2004 through 2007, according to a news release Wednesday. The fiscal year 2008 report is expected this fall.
The reports by the firm Moss-Adams found a wide range of financial, accounting and other problems. The audits highlighted inadequacies in the preserve's tracking of revenues and expenditures and some procedures that were out of whack with federal laws.
"The findings of deficiencies and weaknesses in financial controls during the early years of the Trust are many," Bratcher wrote in a letter accompanying the audits, available on the trust Web site.
Among other things, the audits found preserve staff failed to follow proper procurement procedures.
"There were several instances where possible misuse of appropriated funds were identified including purchase of clothing, food and entertainment, dental and vision insurance for employees and personal use of government vehicles," one of the audits states.
There was also no established procedure for billing individuals for services such as facility rentals and grazing. As a result, collections "may not occur in a timely manner, if they occur at all."
The audit also identified contracts that had not been put out to bid and found that preserve staff and board members had not been required to sign a conflict of interest statement, while trustees did not attend a federal ethics training.
Preserve officials say they've corrected the problems. The changes include the hiring of an accountant and the introduction of an integrated financial system.
"While there are many findings in the audit there are no indications of malfeasance, fraud or misappropriation of funds," Bratcher said.
But the audits are likely to add fuel to the ongoing debate over the management of the preserve.
The federal government purchased the 89,000-acre Jemez Mountain property in 2000. In part because of anti-federal-lands sentiment in Congress at the time, lawmakers left it to a board of trustees — not a federal agency — to run the place. The Trust has until 2015 to become financially self-sufficient.
But some groups say the experiment in lands management has failed and the trust should be replaced with the National Park Service.
By law, the president of the United States names seven of the board's members. The other two trustees on the nine-member board are the supervisor of the Santa Fe National Forest and the superintendent of Bandelier National Monument. Three new members were named to the board in 2007.
You also can send comments via our comment form
|
|
