Waste of the Day: Albuquerque Won’t Release Its Audits
Topline: The City of Albuquerque, New Mexico is stonewalling the public from viewing a series of internal investigations the local inspector general says “deal with fraud, waste, or abuse that impact our city.”
Albuquerque hides the inspector general’s reports
The reports released so far in 2025 detail a total of $374,299 allegedly lost to fraud and questionable expenses, plus allegations of nepotism, bullying, and misuse of paid time off by city employees.
Key facts: In Albuquerque, inspector general reports must be presented to the city’s Accountability in Government Oversight Committee, a five-member group appointed by the mayor and city council. The reports are then made public whether or not the committee approves them.
That leaves a small loophole open. If the committee never meets, the reports can’t be presented or made public.
The committee did not meet from Nov. 14, 2024 until March 31 of this year. On March 31, the committee ended its meeting early before the inspector general reports could be presented, delaying the release of nine audits, according to an open letter from Inspector General Melissa Santistevan.
The committee later explained they had “identified multiple concerns regarding the quality of the reports” and wanted to verify “the accuracy and the quality of published reports,” the Albuquerque Journal reported.
The committee’s meetings are closed to the public. The latest meeting was on April 9, but OpenTheBooks was unable to locate any online record of what was discussed.
It appears that only three of the nine missing audits were released to the public. As of April 18, there are 16 reports from 2025 available on the city website — only three more than were available in February.
Waste of almost all kinds
OpenTheBooks emailed the inspector general’s office to clarify whether there are still hidden audits, but were told only that, “The reports approved for publication at the last meeting are posted to the OIG website.”
Background: The audits that have been released show taxpayer waste of almost every variety.
Albuquerque decided to renovate the third floor of City Hall and paid for three separate designs, spending $55,529 on the two unused plans.
Another report claimed that a city department is violating nepotism policies and “retaliating” against employees for speaking out against it. Other audits alleged that city employees were actually at home during work hours and lied on their time cards.
Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.
Critical quote: The national Association of Inspector Generals called on the committee to release the reports, explaining that “transparency in a democracy demands that the AGOC should fulfill its basic duty of convening regular meetings so that the OIG can present it with reports of investigative findings and recommendations.”
Summary: It’s ironic that a committee for accountability in government oversight is itself not being accountable to the public it serves. Regardless of alleged flaws in the city’s unreleased audits, the public deserves to read the reports and make that determination for themselves.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.
This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.
