Auditors swamped by requests

The audit of Navajo Nation Council discretionary funds may be expanded to include funds allocated to the president's office, according to an order issued recently by the Budget and Finance Committee.

But an audit of the first lady's office - requested by the Government Services Committee - likely will be dropped, the committee decided.

The budget committee in a unanimous decision Nov. 3 directed Elizabeth Begay, acting auditor general, to draft legislation adding the executive office to an audit that was already started on legislative branch discretionary funds.

The legislative branch audit is required under discretionary fund rules adopted in 2007. The president's office, which is allocated around $350,000 a year in discretionary funds, is not covered by the rule.

The budget committee directed Begay to include the changes in a resolution that will specify the auditor general's fiscal 2010 work plan.

The B&F committee is scheduled to meet Dec. 1 and is expected to consider the measure then.

The committee's decision to add the executive office and remove the first lady's office came after Begay presented her 2010 work plan, which shows that the auditors do not have enough hours in the year to complete all the audits requested of them.

On Tuesday the Government Services Committee reacted sharply to dropping the audit of the first lady's office, and directed Begay to see if she could get it added back onto her work list for this year. (See separate story)

Told that Begay is operating with a third of her auditor positions vacant, some on the budget committee suggested that she drop the discretionary fund audit.

Chief Legislative Counsel Frank Seanez cautioned against that, saying the audit is a legal mandate.

At press time Tuesday, Vice President Ben Shelley had not provided a comment on the committee's call to include executive office discretionary funds in the audit.

Leonard Chee (Birdsprings/Leupp/Tolani Lake), vice chairman of the budget committee, suggested eliminating the discretionary fund audit after Begay indicated that auditors would not be able to do all the audits requested of them this year.

She said audits of chapter finances are spurred by chapter resolutions or community petitions, and rather than ignore those requests, she asked the committee to eliminate the planned audit of Diné Power Authority.

This would free up 1,000 hours of work time, she said, noting that her office is limited to a total of 8,918 hours of audit time each year because she only has eight auditors.

The office is budgeted for 12 auditors, but the tribe's personnel office has told her it can't find qualified applicants to fill the four vacancies, Begay told the committee.

The time shortage has delayed follow-up audits of chapters that were found to have problems managing their money, she said.

Chee emphasized that the auditors' priority should be the chapters, especially chapters that already are under sanction by the B&F committee for mishandling money.

He asked why Begay's office is auditing the discretionary funds of the council and speaker, saying, "How does that take precedence over others? It doesn't make sense to me."

Begay explained that Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan (Iyanbito/Pinedale) requested the discretionary fund audit "because of all the allegations that came up."

In September the Navajo Times published the results of its investigation of council discretionary fund records, showing possible ethics violations.

"We included it in our work plan because it involves really questionable activities and to perform our duties and mission statement. Our mission is to promote an accountable government," Begay said.

"And this request to audit the discretionary fund really came from the Navajo people as well as the Office of the Speaker," she said. "So we just cannot decline that and we included that in our fiscal year 2010 audit plan, which again will be subject to your approval."

Chee then asked Begay why she wasn't auditing the discretionary fund "across the street," referring to the president's office.

Begay said if the committee wanted an audit of the executive office discretionary funds, it would have to shift other planned audits, or identify supplemental funding to outsource the audit.

She added that she supports outsourcing the audit of discretionary funds allocated to the delegates and speaker.

Chee then called for dropping the audits of the discretionary funds, the first lady's office and DPA.

He said those audit hours, which are expected to comprise about 25 percent of the auditors' available hours this year, should be used instead for the chapters.

It's "meaningless" to audit the chapters when there's no follow-up, which happens when available audit hours are devoted to new audits, Chee said.

"If that's the process, then we're just creating a backlog and disservice to the chapters," he said.

Begay instead recommended eliminating four new chapter audits and the DPA audit, noting that her staff has already started the discretionary funds audit, and that it involves "allegations of fraud, waste and abuse."

"What we can do is add the Office of the President and Vice President," Begay pleaded. "But to drop (the discretionary fund audit) may make more problems."

Seanez noted that the audit of legislative branch discretionary funds is "mandated" under policies and procedures approved by the council's Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

The rules call for an annual audit of the funds, but that provision had been ignored until the Navajo Times investigation was published.

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