From State Auditor Tim Keller

Audits aren't very glamorous, but if you care about good government, they are extremely important. In order to hold our government accountable, taxpayers need to know how governments are handling our money. Until recently, much of that information was buried within the hundreds of audits completed each year.

Now, a report is available that compiles this information and makes it accessible to the public and policymakers. This gives New Mexicans an opportunity to learn the nuts and bolts of how state and local governments are protecting and accounting for our money.

The New Mexico State Auditor's Office released the first of its kind report called The Findings Report: A Summary of New Mexico's Governmental Financial Audits. The report analyzes the most recent audits of hundreds of entities across New Mexico, state agencies, cities, counties and school districts. The results provide a snapshot of how government is working using three measures: the audit opinion (a measure of transparency), types of annual audit findings (a measure of good practices), and repeated audit findings (a measure of progress toward fixing what is broken).

Several valuable insights surface in The Findings Report. First, New Mexico can be proud that the vast majority of governmental entities are accounting for public dollars in a transparent, reliable manner. Ninety-four percent of entities received an "unmodified" audit opinion, meaning they are providing reliable financial information to the public. Unfortunately, a handful of state agencies received less favorable opinions, including the Corrections Department, General Services Department, Regulation and Licensing Department, and the Office of Secretary of State.

Secondly, the number of audit "findings" speaks to accounting practices and compliance with laws. Fewer findings are better. Of the over 2,000 findings across audited entities, 50 percent represented significant issues or problems. Entities with the most findings include the Public Education Department, Albuquerque Public Schools, the City of Albuquerque, and Cibola County.

Twenty-six percent of governmental entities had unmodified opinions with no findings, indicating a clean bill of health. Some of these are the Legislative Finance Committee, New Mexico Supreme Court, and Commission of Public Records.

Thirdly, The Findings Report indicates that almost half of all audit findings were repeated from a previous year. Our office will now require corrective action plans to address weaknesses in financial controls.

Many findings relate to "component units," such as charter schools in a school district or a housing authority in a city. Although the primary governments do not manage the day-to-day operations of component units, accounting standards require their inclusion in an audit because of the oversight responsibility. A question for policymakers is how to increase the effectiveness of that oversight.

The State Auditor's Office will release The Findings Report yearly, giving the public and policymakers a mechanism to track public dollars. Fraud, waste and abuse can happen anywhere, but these measures show us where our state is particularly vulnerable. New Mexicans are encouraged to read this report - it's your money and you have a right to know how it is being accounted for.

The Findings Report is available here: http://osanm.org/government_accountability_office