A scandal over a fake audit is raising questions about oversight of the New Mexico Finance Authority, and attendance records for the authority's 11-member governing board show several of Gov. Susana Martinez's cabinet secretaries regularly missed meetings but sent staffers to represent them on the board.
Nearly all of the board is appointed by the governor or serve in her cabinet.
Two of Martinez's cabinet secretaries never personally attended a board meeting for 18 months after the governor took office but had department staff take their place, as allowed by law. The agency leaders say their designated replacements performed well.
But the authority's managers and board members overlooked potential warning signs about the fake audit, from missed deadlines to the lack of a face-to-face meeting with an outside auditor