So much for oversight: A federal audit of alleged fraud and shoddy accounting practices at the New Mexico Department of Health—scheduled to be completed next month—has been postponed, SFR learned today.

Last week, SFR reported on a personnel shake-up at the DOH. Those small changes, along with an impending US Department of Agriculture audit, were rare bright spots in a department plagued with allegations of fraud, nepotism and favoritism. (For prior coverage, read SFR's Jan. 13 cover story.)

But Patricia Mancha, a spokeswoman for the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, told SFR today that "the audit has been postponed until likely mid-July, and it will not be completed until possibly the end of August."

Contrary to a rumor circulating in some parts of Santa Fe, Mancha says the audit wasn't postponed because the state requested more time. "That would not be something we would comply with," Mancha says. Nothing like a federal agency flexing its authoritative muscle...a few months late.