For the June 6 New Mexico primary elections, SFR will call up candidates in the CONTESTED races to test their knowledge. The rules for Pop Quiz are as follows: No research allowed and if they call back later with the right answer, too bad. To see who answered correctly (or came closest), check out our answer key below.
Questions:
1. Who audits the State Auditor's Office?
2. When do audit reports become public record after they've been reviewed and released by the state auditor and in what instance does the state auditor have discretion on when to enter an audit report into the public record?
3. How often does the Auditor's Office undergo an external peer review and what organization administers those reviews?
4. What position did embattled former treasury secretary Robert Vigil hold before joining the Treasury Department?
5. What is the maximum length of time an Independent Public Accountant firm can consecutively audit a specific state agency?
6. Approximately how many individual entities fall under the state auditor's jurisdiction?
7. Who handles the bulk of the yearly audits reviewed and released by the State Auditor's Office?
8. What oversight does the State Auditor's Office have to implement corrective actions in audited agencies?
9. With so much publicity about government corruption at the state and federal level, what role do you see the state auditor taking in the future?
10. If you had the power to audit the finances of any person in the world, who would you audit and why?
Answers:
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Jeff Armijo, 36, is president of Paradise Travel Inc.
1. The people of New Mexico.
2. The audit report is public record 10 business days after review and [the state auditor has discretion] upon waiver from the audited agency.
3. I'd prefer it was every year but it's possibly every three years. The organization is the National Association of Comptrollers, Treasurers and Auditors.
4. He was the state auditor.
5. The maximum amount of time that one firm can audit the same agency is six years. But I would prefer that they enter into three-year agreements with an option to renew every year and then they may have the same agency up to six years.
6. There are 598.
7. The bulk of the audits are done by small [accounting] firms throughout New Mexico.
8. The state Audit Act is very broad and does not provide specifically for any specific oversight.
9. I am going to protect ordinary New Mexicans every day.
10. I would audit [former New Mexico state representative and owner of Buffett's Candies] George Buffet to see how he is so successful.
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Thomas R Buckner, 65, is currently on unpaid leave (in order to campaign) from his job as deputy superintendent at the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department.
1. The state auditor employs a [Certified Public Accountant] firm to audit the state auditor just like the state auditor has CPA firms audit other agencies.
2. All state audits are public record as soon as the state auditor releases them. The state auditor doesn't have discretion of withholding an audit.
3. I'm thinking it's every two years and it's a national organization of state auditors but I can't tell you the name of it.
4. He was state auditor.
5. I don't know that there is a maximum but I think there is a rule that every six years they rotate and they have to be out for one year and then they can go back.
6. 598.
7. Private CPA firms do the bulk of the audits but they are all reported back to the state auditor who reviews them and then releases them.
8. As far as oversight goes, I don't know that they have the authority to remove people or anything of that sort.
9. I am appalled at what has happened at the State Treasurer's Office and want to be elected so I can clean up and try to avoid such actions in the future. I will be a very proactive state auditor when elected. I will be monitoring all of the audit findings and working with all of the state agencies to get the audit findings resolved…there is also a fraud unit in the State Auditor's Office and I will be giving greater emphasis to that office.
10. George W Bush [laughs]. I have followed his career for a number of years and I have 18 years of white-collar crime investigation [experience]-I'm not saying there is anything there-but I would love to take the experience I have and look at his finances and see some of his financial dealings.
SFR Key
1. An Independent Public Accountant firm audits the State Auditor's Office. In 2005, the firm was Macias, Gutierrez & Co.
2. Audit reports typically become public records 10 business days after review and release by the state auditor. The state auditor may delay the release of a report as public record in a case where fraud and/or embezzlement is suspected.
3. The National State Auditor's Association conducts external peer reviews on the State Auditor's Office every three years.
4. State auditor.
5. The maximum amount of time that an individual firm can audit a particular state agency is six consecutive years.
6. 598.
7. Independent Private Accountant firms handle a bulk of the audits in conjunction with the State Auditor's Office, which reviews and releases the audits.
8. None. The State Auditor's Office operates as an independent agency within state government and thus has no official power to enforce corrective actions. Agencies with oversight powers include the State Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education and the Department of Finance and Administration.
