Audit: Education agency failed to follow protocol
A new state audit says a regional education agency in Southern New Mexico violated the state government’s procurement code several times in the last fiscal year, including awarding a contract worth more than $2.2 million to a private company without requesting bids.
The annual audit of the Ruidoso-based Region 9 Education Cooperative, posted on the State Auditor’s Office website last week, says the New Mexico Public Education Department had asked the cooperative to hire the specific contractor for professional services, and requested the cooperative hire another contractor at a cost of more than $132,000 without adhering to the state’s procurement rules, which require an open bidding process.
The cooperative also failed to follow procurement procedures in at least four other instances involving contracts worth more than $60,000, the audit says, explaining that auditors sampled 18 contract awards from the fiscal year that ended in June. In each case, the cooperative either underestimated the cost of services, failed to request the contractor’s proposed fees for services or didn’t keep any documentation of a contractor’s bid on file, the audit says.
Las Cruces-based auditing firm Fierro & Fierro raises questions in the audit about the Public Education Department’s influence over the Region 9 cooperative in choosing contractors for projects but does not cite what it considers significant issues. The report also does not reveal the contractors involved in procurement code violations.
The Region 9 Education Cooperative is one of 10 such cooperatives established in the state in 1984 to provide services for public school districts and charter schools, such as
technical assistance, professional development for teachers and support for special-education students. The majority of the cooperatives’ funding comes from the state’s general fund, which also finances public education in New Mexico.
The audit says the Region 9 cooperative’s revenues for fiscal year 2017 were $21,760,491, while total expenses were $20,446,855.
A voicemail recording at the Region 9 office says it is closed for the winter break. Efforts to reach Executive Director Bryan Dooley by phone were unsuccessful. He also did not respond to an email Thursday requesting comment on the audit.
Public Education Department spokeswoman Lida Alikhani defended the department and the cooperative in an email Thursday, saying, “The former state auditor hired an outside party to conduct an audit on this matter. The independent reviewer found no wrongdoing. That request from the auditor is closed.”
However, State Auditor Wayne Johnson, appointed to the position earlier this month after former State Auditor Tim Keller was elected mayor of Albuquerque, said he is still reviewing the case.
His office has received four different allegations against the Region 9 cooperative “having to do with billings and contracts and that sort of thing,” Johnson said. “Two of them have been closed out and referred out. Of the other two, one is pending closure and one is an active case.”
Johnson said he wasn’t surprised that the private auditing firm hadn’t discovered any serious deficiencies with the cooperative’s financial management.
“The truth is,” he said, “auditors can miss things when they go through the financial audits. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell until you look at them a little closer. That’s the reason we have an active case.”