ALBUQUERQUE — The 4,000-square-foot fresco in the entrance tower to the National Hispanic Cultural Center, with its hundreds of historical images, is a masterpiece and a state treasure, said New Mexico's cultural affairs secretary.

Still, she's looking for a refund of some $380,000 in state money spent on the project, insisting that the Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation used that amount to cover costs that weren't allowed.

The fresco was funded by capital outlay appropriations, which are restricted to construction, Cultural Affairs Secretary Veronica Gonzales wrote in a March 30 letter to foundation president Clara Apodaca.

Apodaca returned an unspent $138,360 the next day.

However, she told Gonzales the foundation does not believe it's responsible for reimbursing money already spent because the expenditures were approved by the previous Cultural Affairs administration.

The foundation relied on guidance from that agency and the Department of Finance and Administration to ensure contracts complied with capital outlay requirements, Apodaca said in her March 31 response to Gonzales.

"The fact is we had a contract with the Department of Cultural Affairs and we listed everything," she said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We followed the contract exactly."

"The mistakes of the fresco allocation were not made by the foundation, but on the part of previous DCA and DFA administrations, as both of the departments should be well-versed in how capital outlay should be spent," she wrote Gonzales.

Cultural Affairs is not questioning money spent on the fresco on the concave walls of the torreon, or tower, that greets visitors to the cultural center in Albuquerque. The images on the fresco, which opened in October after nine years in the making, depict 3,000 years of Hispanic history from Europe to the American Southwest.

The project received a total of $812,500 in two state appropriations in 2007 and 2008.

Rather, Cultural Affairs wants the foundation to repay $241,494 — in addition to the money already returned — contending it went for impermissible spending, including $162,500 in administrative costs. Apodaca said those costs included salaries for herself and support staff and other costs to monitor the project.

She met with state officials earlier this month and "all agreed there's been some mistakes made," Apodaca said.

Gonzales said her agency has taken control of the project and initiated an independent audit of both her agency and the foundation to determine where failures occurred.

Said Apodaca, "We've been very honest and straightforward, we compiled all the invoices. We can account for every penny we spent. What was left over, we returned, and if the audit finds we need to return more, we will return it." That, however, would require fundraising, she said.

Gonzales expects the audit to be finished in two to three weeks. She said it's unlikely the amount her agency seeks will go down.

The memorandum of understanding Apodaca originally signed with Cultural Affairs included a full-length documentary, educational materials and art books.

"If they disallow some of these things, we might be disputing it because it's listed," Apodaca said.

Cultural Affairs, in a December review during the previous administration, found the foundation adequately accounted for the money and complied with contractual requirements, state laws and regulations, Apodaca wrote.

But Gonzales concluded there were serious mistakes with the funds' distribution.

Apodaca wants the foundation and the cultural center to have a say in how the returned money is spent. She listed certain needs, including fixing leaks in the torreon's roof, lighting and work on the floor. Gonzales and Finance and Administration Secretary Richard May agreed to some infrastructure spending in an April 6 meeting with Apodaca and put that in writing last Monday.

Apodaca said the fresco also needs audio to tell visitors what they're seeing.

"When you walk in, it's a beautiful exhibit, but you don't understand," she said. Equipping visitors with audio would explain the magnitude of history that the fresco represents.

The foundation did a DVD on the fresco's October opening, but hasn't finished a planned one-hour documentary that already has cost more than $69,000. Historians have been interviewed and the script is finished, Apodaca said. The foundation also planned a book and brochures.

Gonzales said capital appropriations don't allow such education-related spending.




© Copyright Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.