Maverick County Taxpayers Financially Bleeding Due to County’s Inability to File 2012 Audit
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2014, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
Maverick County taxpayers are sustaining significant financial losses due to Maverick County Commissioners Court inability to file the County’s 2012 Financial Statements and Audit by the state law-mandated March 1, 2013 deadline, according to statements made at the January 30, 2014 Commissioners Court meeting.
Agenda Item No. 9 at the January 30th Commissioners Court meeting was eye-opening and demonstrative of a dysfunctional county government with various County departments and representatives being unable to cooperate with one another causing a further delay in the filing of Maverick County’s 2012 Financial Statement and Audit with the State of Texas, exacerbating Maverick County’s flagrant violation of state law at the expense of taxpayers.
“I dare to say that we are the only ones in the state that haven’t finished the 2012 Audit,” said County Commissioner Precinct 4 Roberto Ruiz. “This is the culture of ‘Let them eat cake’ and ‘he said, she said’ that I have been trying to stop and get us to work as one,’ said County Judge David R. Saucedo.
Milo Martinez, C.P.A., principal shareholder, of Martinez Rosario & Company, presented an update and chronology of the 2012 Financial Statements and Audit of Maverick County, detailing the very slow response and incomplete data provided by the Maverick County Auditor’s Office under the direction of Fidencio Ortiz, whom is appointed by District Judge Amado J. Abascal, III, to his staff to be able to quickly and expeditiously complete the 2012 Audit. Martinez presented a summary of chronology and a book documenting his office’s requests for information and data to the Maverick County Auditor’s Office to Commissioners Court.
Commissioner Roberto Ruiz stated that the County Auditor’s office was “very slow, poor quality, and poor performance” responding to the data and information requests by Martinez Rosario & Company. County Judge David R. Saucedo added that Commissioners Court has “supplied the County Auditor an abundance of staff, more than any other department in the County” so that they could do their work and assist the County fulfill its Audit responsibilities. County Auditor Fidencio Ortiz attempted to respond to these allegations, but County Judge Saucedo visibly upset raised his voice and pointed his finger at him and told him to wait as he was speaking. County Judge Saucedo stated that “it is an embarassment. It’s unfortunate, but the public needs to know.”
County Auditor Fidencio Ortiz finally responded advising Commissioners Court that his office had “at this point, we have given Martinez Rosario & Company everything they requested.” Ortiz added that Martinez’s staff had confirmed receiving the information requested. Ortiz advised Commissioners Court that “we are done working on the 2012 Audit, and we are now working on the 2013 Audit.”
State Representative and Maverick County Civil General Counsel Poncho Nevarez advised Commissioners Court that on July 15, 2013, he and Milo Martinez met with representatives of the Texas Department of Agriculture in Austin, Texas to discuss that state agency’s concerns with the lack of an opinion on the County’s 2011 Audit and when would the County be filing its 2012 Audit as it was already late, jeopardizing Texas Department of Agriculture grants to Maverick County. Martinez added that his office had made revisions to the 2011 Audit to satisfy the Texas Department of Agriculture’s concerns and both Nevarez and him advised the Texas Department of Agriculture that they would have the County’s 2012 Audit done by October of 2013. However, due to the slow response and retrieval of information requested from the County Auditor’s Office, the 2012 Audit was unable to be completed by October 2013 and remains uncompleted.
County Judge David R. Saucedo stated that he has “a federal agency asking him for an appointment to discuss why the 2012 Audit has not been completed.” County Commissioner Precinct 1 Gerardo “Jerry” Morales earlier in the week stated in news interviews that Maverick County’s failure to file its 2012 Audit is costing taxpayers thousands of dollars in lost state and federal grant funds. In addition, Maverick County is incurring higher interest rates in some of its bonds or loans due to its failure to file its 2012 Audit, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars per month, possibly as high as $10,000 or more per month.
Commissioner Roberto Ruiz asked Milo Martinez the million dollar question “When will the 2012 Audit be completed?” Martinez replied that a draft of the 2012 Audit should be ready for review by the end of February 2014 and a final draft should be ready for approval by March 2014, however, Martinez stated that the 2012 Audit will not include the Maverick County Solid Waste Authority’s County Landfill because the County Auditor’s Office did not provide his staff the County Landfill’s complete financial data and information. Commissioner Ruiz asked if the County Landfill’s lack of financial data might cause a further delay and set back.
State Representative and Maverick County Civil General Counsel Poncho Nevarez stated that we need “to Kick it off the road and get it done. Nobody needs to take legal action, but just get it done.” Nevarez added that he put his face for Maverick County on July 15, 2013 with the Texas Department of Agriculture representatives and I am flabbergasted” that the 2012 Audit was not completed by October 2013 as promised to the state agency. Nevarez emphasized “to just get it done.”
The January 30th Maverick County Commissioners Court meeting demonstrated the lack of collaboration and unity between Commissioners Court and the County Auditors Office with County-hired professional representatives to complete the 2012 Financial Statements and Audit to the detriment of Maverick County taxpayers to the tune of thousands of dollars per month in higher interest fees and lost state and federal grants in 2013 and 2014.
