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Opinion editorials Handling of Pit Appeal Calls for a Time-Out |
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opinion editorialsThis editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by editorial page staff and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers
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Friday, July 03, 2009
Missing School Money A Teaching Moment
For years, school districts have had an important piece of homework: Get an independent audit of the books done annually and turn that information over to the state. But because there were no consequences to skipping the assignment, the requirement was often ignored.
Effective Wednesday, those districts as well as charter schools now face the consequence of having their state funding docked if they don't turn in their audits in a timely fashion.
It's a smart move that's too late for the 375-student Jemez Mountain School District.
State Auditor Hector Balderas says the total believed to have been embezzled by the district's business manager, Kathy Borrego, could be much higher than the initial $292,300-plus estimate.
It turns out that Jemez Mountain was four years behind in turning in audits in 2007. The new superintendent got things back on track last year — and here we are with what Balderas says could be the “worst embezzlement in New Mexico history.”
He's now auditing the 10 years Borrego was with the district and plans to call in the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Borrego has not been charged and has been unavailable for comment.
Public Education Department Secretary Veronica García says the audits are integral to uncovering problems like those at Jemez Mountain. Budgets can look good, financial statements can show accounts balance, but without an audit from an uninvolved party the good and the balanced can be on paper only.
Caroline Buerkle of the state Auditor's Office points out that in turn, audits are only as good as the financials they are based on.
But if there are fiscal improprieties, at some point in the process, between the monthly reports to the school board and the independent audit, between the independent audit and the review by the state auditor, between the state auditor review and the report to PED, someone should catch something that just doesn't add up.
García says that's why she pushed for the legislation, so there's a price for noncompliance — five percent of a district's state equalization funding after 90 days, seven percent after 180.
It's too late for this law to help Jemez Mountain. But it's not too soon for the school boards that oversee school district finances to consider in-order monthly reports and current audits to be as important as the annual budgets they approve.
They now have a fiscal incentive to do so — along with a troubling example of what happens when they don't.
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