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Overdue Audit to Cost Willacy: County to Miss Out on $314,000 Grant, Possibly Second Grant As Well

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Fernando Del Valle, Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, Texas

Feb. 15--RAYMONDVILLE -- Failing to complete a long overdue audit will cost Willacy County a $314,000 state grant, a state official said this week.

The financially embattled county will also likely lose a second grant because county officials do not expect to complete two overdue audits by the state's deadline, County Auditor Ida Martinez said.

The state Office of Rural Community Affairs is withholding the grant because the county did not complete its annual financial audit for fiscal year 2002-2003, Rob Stevenson, the agency's regional coordinator, said.

Another $300,000 grant is also likely to be withheld for the 2007-2008 fiscal year because county officials are not expected to complete financial audits for fiscal years 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 before the agency's deadline of Aug. 31, Martinez said.

"We're going to attempt to, but it's highly unlikely," she said.

The agency's policy prohibits counties with two or more overdue audits to receive grants, Stevenson said.

"They have lots of needs and we really want to fund them and help out, but unless they can account for the money that's given, we can't," Stevenson said.

The state may also require the county complete its audit for fiscal year 2004-2005 by the August deadline to be eligible for the grant for the 2007-2008 fiscal year, Stevenson said.

The state would require the county to complete the 2004-2005 audit if the county spent more than $500,000 in state and federal funds during fiscal year 2004-2005, he said.

Martinez said she's trying to determine if the county spent past that benchmark.

"I think we're real close," she said. "We're borderline."

Martinez said she does not expect to complete the audit for fiscal year 2002-2003 until this summer, with the audit for fiscal year 2003-2004 completed by the end of this year.

Since 2000, the agency has given the county about $1.5 million in grant money, state officials said.

Most of that grant money goes to fund road improvements and water and sewer upgrades, county officials said.

This year, the county more than doubled its auditing office's budget to overhaul the department that's three years behind in its work.

State District Judge Migdalia Lopez, who oversees the county auditor's office, approved two new positions while raising the office's salaries across the board.

"I knew I would get some criticism because I put more money into the audit's office, but I had to do something about the audits," Lopez said.

Based on Lopez's order, county commissioners set the auditor's budget at $371,478, up from $182,071 last year.

"We've given the auditor's office what she has requested and if there's anything else, we're ready to give it to them because of how important those audits are," County Commissioner Aurelio Guerra said.

In November, Martinez, who previously worked with the Brownsville certified public accounting firm of Patillo, Brown & Hill, became the county's fourth auditor since 2003.

Late last year, a panel of state district court judges appointed Salvador Pendas to replace Walter Thannisch, who resigned in October 2004 to undergo treatment for prostrate cancer.

In January 2004, the judges appointed Thannisch to replace Armando Rubalcaba, whom they had fired for incompetence in October 2003.

In September 2004, Rubalcaba pleaded no contest to the theft of $65,000 in county funds.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, Texas

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas)

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