A regional group meant to promote communities around the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico could be forced to reimburse the U.S. government for up to $300,000 in federal grant money absent documents showing the funds were not spent on lobbying or other improper expenses.
That’s the bottom line of a just-released report from the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) on activities by the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC).
The report from Assistant Inspector General Bruce Miller, dated Sept. 27 and released to the public Wednesday, also faults the business center for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management for lack of proper oversight over the five-year, $500,000 grant awarded to RCLC in September 2015.
The purpose of the DOE grant is to “promote environmental protection, economic development, and regional planning, and to allow the RCLC to evaluate policy initiatives and legislative impacts on its members,” according to the OIG report.
While the regional coalition is not prohibited from lobbying, it cannot use its federal money for that purpose, the OIG noted. “The RCLC comingled Department funds with funds received from other sources and subsequently engaged in activities prohibited” under the grant agreement, according to the report.
Prior state reviews have noted that Los Alamos County served as the ill-defined fiscal agent for the regional group. The Office of Inspector General said RCLC did not ensure the county segregated the DOE grant money from its other funding sources. Because of RCLC’s sloppy bookkeeping, “we are questioning $300,000 in Department of Energy grant funds,” the OIG said.
The OIG report is the latest outgrowth of a controversy over travel reimbursement policy and record-keeping under former executive director Andrea Romero, now a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives. The organization did not renew her contract in February 2018 after she led RCLC for four years.
Current RCLC Executive Director Eric Vasquez said in a press release Wednesday the organization has taken many steps in the past year to put its fiscal house in order.
