Gonzales: PNM ordered WASA audit Padarath now cites

For­mer Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les says the Ernst & Young re­port be­ing used by his suc­ces­sor, Bar­ry Padarath, to ques­tion trans­ac­tions at the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) was com­mis­sioned un­der the pre­vi­ous Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ad­min­is­tra­tion to in­ves­ti­gate sus­pect­ed ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties be­fore out­stand­ing in­voic­es were paid.

Gon­za­les made the state­ment at an Op­po­si­tion press con­fer­ence at the Red House on Mon­day, hours af­ter Padarath cit­ed the re­port dur­ing his con­tri­bu­tion to the 2027 Bud­get de­bate, rais­ing ques­tions about trans­ac­tions in­volv­ing wa­ter truck­ing con­trac­tor Flex­i­ble En­ter­pris­es Lim­it­ed.

Full coverageForensic Review Finds $11.4 Million in WASA Water-Trucking Irregularities5 reports

The Arou­ca/Lopinot MP ac­cused Padarath of try­ing to score po­lit­i­cal points with an in­ves­ti­ga­tion ini­ti­at­ed by the for­mer ad­min­is­tra­tion.