A coalition of local communities surrounding the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is back in the good financial graces of the Energy Department after repaying nearly $16,000 in grant money.
Earlier this year, the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) repaid the agency $15,767 for expenditures questioned in a September 2019 report by the DOE Office of Inspector General. The payment has been received by the Energy Department, RCLC Executive Director Eric Vasquez said in a Monday email.
The IG report urged DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) in Cincinnati to determine if the agency was due reimbursement for up to $300,000 of grant money received by RCLC from June 30, 2015, through June 30, 2018. The regional coalition received five annual installments of $100,000.
The IG, along with state probes in New Mexico, questioned past bookkeeping practices by the coalition and whether the organization improperly used federal money for lobbying. While the RCLC is not prohibited from lobbying, but it cannot use its federal money for that purpose. Providing gifts and entertainment for stakeholders can be construed as lobbying, and the RCLC has explicitly banned such activity since the federal report.
The IG report said sloppy record-keeping and the RCLC’s “co-mingling of funds” provided by the Energy Department and local sources made it tough to determine the extent to which federal money was spent on allowable activities.
After providing the department with additional financial records from the tenure of prior RCLC executive director Andrea Romero, now a state representative in New Mexico, the $15,767 reimbursement figure was agreed upon, Vasquez said.
Since the report came out, the RCLC has provided the IG with additional records and information in an attempt to show the vast majority of DOE grant money was spent for allowable expenses.
The RCLC consists of nine local and tribal governments around the DOE national laboratory. It typically gets half of its $200,000 annual budget from local members, with the rest coming from the Energy Department.
The Energy Department awards grant funds to certain non-federal organizations in order to assist with its cleanup mission, including at Los Alamos. The EMCBC is in charge of monitoring the grants.
The EMCBC in 2015 awarded the RCLC a five-year, $500,000 grant to promote environmental protection, economic development, and regional planning. The IG questioned justification for $300,000 of the $500,000 paid out during the period. Now that the coalition has squared up its books, it anticipates seeking a new federal grant.
“Yes, we believe the RCLC is well positioned to reapply for the grant. Oversight and financial controls have been completely rebuilt and are exceptionally robust,” Vasquez said.
The Energy Department Friday confirmed the RCLC is now eligible to again start receiving grant money, and that an application is pending.
Vasquez and the firm CPLC New Mexico recently decided against seeking another two-year term as executive director for the regional coalition. Vasquez will leave the post at the end of the month, and the RCLC board should review a request for proposals for a new executive director at its Sept. 11 meeting, he said.
The RCLC Board of Directors did not to renew Romero’s contract in February 2018 after questions arose about reimbursement provided the former director for a restaurant meal, alcoholic beverages, and Major League Baseball tickets to LANL stakeholders, during a trip to Washington, D.C. Romero subsequently reimbursed the RCLC $2,600, although she denied doing anything wrong and said the coalition board had signed off on the expenses beforehand.
Last month, Romero refused to pay $7,778 in additional reimbursement sought by the RCLC. “I did not personally benefit from any reimbursable expenditure, as these were monies I paid for in advance on my personal credit card, on behalf of the RCLC and their guests,” Romero said in a July 14 letter to Nancy Long, the attorney for the coalition.
