While two reports made public this month in New Mexico have illustrated poor accounting practices at the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities, Los Alamos County Manager Harry Burgess rejects the suggestion county employees, acting as the group’s fiscal agency, have engaged in wrongdoing.
The New Mexico attorney general is investigating any potential fraud in reimbursements paid to the then-executive director at the organization established to promote localities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. That followed reports earlier in the month on the matter from the state auditor’s office and the Adams+Crow Law Firm, which was commissioned by Los Alamos County.
While RCLC is a state-created entity, the reports found it was approving reimbursement of alcohol, pricey meals, and entertainment-related expenses other state employees can’t claim. The reports also cited sloppy bookkeeping by RCLC and the county.
“I personally disagree with implications by representatives of Adams and Crow that County employees or elected officials intentionally misled or attempted to conceal any wrong-doing,” Burgess said in a statement. While the county might have failed to establish proper policies and oversight of the RCLC, county staff is “held to the highest level of integrity,” he added.
Much of the original research into RCLC reimbursements was conducted in an internal audit by Los Alamos County, which provided the foundation for the reports by the state auditor and the law firm, Burgess said.
The RCLC in February did not to renew the executive director contract for Andrea Romero Consulting after questions about $2,600 in expenses for travel, meals, alcoholic beverages, and tickets to a baseball game in Washington, D.C. Romero, who has since won a Democrat primary for a state representative seat, has repaid all the disputed reimbursements.
The contract with new RCLC director Eric Vasquez, of the firm CPLC New Mexico, excludes many problem areas of the past contract, Burgess said. For instance, Vasquez has said his firm won’t take reimbursement for travel expenses.
