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County finance staff flag incomplete TIGER grant drawdowns and seek reconciliation
Summary
Colfax County finance staff told commissioners preliminary reviews show large project expenditures for the TIGER transportation grant were paid but only a portion had been drawn down from the federal grant; staff urged continued reconciliation and documentation to support drawdown requests.
County finance staff reported a preliminary reconciliation of the federal TIGER grant that found the county has paid large invoices on the project but drawn down substantially less federal reimbursement than expected.
Audrey Armijo, financial staff working with the county’s interim team, and Justin Minnert, who ran the budget-to-actual reports, presented findings summarized from check runs and the county’s audited financial statements. Armijo said the figures require detailed tracing but showed a gap between federal share available and what the county has billed. "...it looks like the county paid out $1,790,000,0.0. And then you can see these 2 numbers...the FRA receipts are only $12,000,000," Armijo said, describing a remaining federal share on the TIGER grant of about $4 million that had not yet been drawn.
Justin Minnert explained that a number of large vendor payments (for example, invoices to NMDOT and BNSF noted in internal records) appear in the county check register and in the audited Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards, but corresponding draw requests were not always present in FRA billing records. He told commissioners the finance team is continuing line-by-line reconciliation of vendor invoices, local-match credits and drawdown requests and said the county may have temporarily covered TIGER expenditures out of general-fund cash to keep projects moving.
Commissioners and staff discussed the possibility that reimbursements were suspended at points while reporting was incomplete; a county official present said the federal office (FRA) had temporarily suspended reimbursements until certain reporting requirements were met. Staff said they would request missing match agreements and partner documentation and recommended further auditing and possibly a multi-year review of Triadic accounting entries if necessary.
Staff presented this as an informational status: they had begun submitting missing federal data-collection forms to the clearinghouse and planned further reconciliation ahead of the federal March 31 deadline for data submissions related to the audit.
No formal action was taken; staff said they would return with more detailed reconciled numbers and documentation requests as they continue the review.
