A Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe accountant has raised questions about whether cash payments from parents ever made it to the club's bank account. Although she wrote to the club's board in January that she wanted the matter referred to law enforcement, the board didn't do so.

But State Auditor Hector Balderas' office — which received last month an anonymous complaint alleging embezzlement by one or more club employees — did refer the matter to the state Attorney General's Office on Friday. The state Auditor's Office said the issue was being referred because "a potential criminal violation" could have occurred.

The acting president of the club's board, Nicole Castellano, said in a written statement last week that after accountant Deanna Romero reported her concerns in January, the organization commissioned "an immediate internal forensic audit."

In March, however, Romero wrote to the board that she didn't think the audit had adequately addressed her concerns. "The investigation conducted to date is not sufficient to avoid the appearance that both I and the board are involved in a cover-up of illegal activity," Romero stated.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe provides meals, after-school care and health care services to children at its main site on Alto Street and four satellite locations in public housing projects in the city and county.

Al Padilla is chief professional officer of the clubs. His wife, Bernadette Archuleta Padilla — formerly director of the club's satellite operation in Santa Cruz, south of Española — oversees all the satellite sites, each of which has its own director.

Al Padilla, Bernadette Archuleta Padilla, Romero and the employee who accepts cash payments at the Santa Cruz site all were placed on leave while the audit was conducted.

"Based on the results of the audit report, the board has now undertaken to review and address internal operational and financial controls as well as implementing certain disciplinary action," Castellano said in a written statement.

Al Padilla, who originally told a reporter the allegations had nothing to do with him or his wife, is back at work. He said last week that the audit revealed "no trace of malice, ill intent or personal gain."

He said his wife remains on leave in relation to the matter. He declined to answer further questions and said his wife likewise didn't want to comment.

Although Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe is a private nonprofit, most of its approximately $1.8 million annual budget comes from public sources.

Al Padilla, paid about $80,000 per year, said the club's records are public, and the organization stated as much on a tax document filed with the federal Internal Revenue Service in 2008. But Castellano would not produce a copy of the audit in response to a written request.

"Because outside investigative agencies may be undergoing their own review of (the audit) it's important that we maintain sensitivity and fairness to all parties involved," Castellano said in a written statement. "Therefore, at this time we are unable to make public the audit."

Al Padilla said he had not seen the audit but that the board's former president, Tony Ornelas, told him about its contents. Ornelas resigned March 22.

Romero said an administrative assistant was the first to raise a red flag about the way cash was handled at the Santa Cruz site. The employee filled in at a time when both Bernadette Archuleta Padilla and the site director were on leave.

The employee noticed "what appeared to be irregular practices — one of which was the collection of cash and staff's unwillingness to forward that cash to the Alto Club," Romero wrote in a letter to the organization's board in January.

All sites are supposed to accept only cashier's checks or money orders from parents who pay for after-school care, Romero said. But a sign at the Santa Cruz office reportedly directed parents to make cash payments.

Romero wrote that after hearing about the issue from the employee, she and the assistant director, Chris Cavazos, reviewed receipt books for all the satellite sites. They found that funds received from other sites "uniformly culminated with deposits in the Club operating bank account," she wrote.

But her review of a receipt book from the Santa Cruz site indicated $9,000 worth of cash payments made there between June 2010 and January 2011 could not be accounted for.

"We could not locate any deposits for cash into the operating bank accounts," Romero wrote to the board. She added that in her five years at the organization, neither she nor Cavazos — the only other employee responsible for making bank deposits — could recall ever receiving cash from the Santa Cruz site.

Romero wrote she had been under the impression there were no cash payments from Santa Cruz because most of the children served there qualify for free services. But, she wrote, when she questioned the person responsible for accepting payments in Santa Cruz, the woman said, "Most of my parents pay in cash, about 90 percent of them."

According to Romero, "She also said she receives the cash, issues a receipt and then turns the money received into Bernadette (Archuleta Padilla) and that she has been doing it that way for 15 years." Romero said picking up money from the sites was not one of Bernadette Archuleta Padilla's normal duties at any of the other sites.

Romero told the board she then asked the Santa Cruz employee to bring 10 more receipts books in her possession to Romero at the main office. The employee agreed, Romero wrote, but she later learned that the receipt books were given to the Padillas instead, and Romero was never able to review them.

Romero wrote that she received a call later that day from Cavazos, who told her "that it was over. That there is nothing I can do, that they did not receive cash, that it was all in-kind and that they have already been calling the parents to get the story straight." Romero wrote that according to information from Cavazos, Al Padilla had said some cash had been turned in to him and he had used it for "club expenses," but Cavazos never could locate any receipts for said expenses.

Romero said she got very upset about the way her report was received, went home sick and a few days later turned over to board members her keys, her resignation letter and her account of the events. The board refused to accept her resignation and told her she was being placed on paid leave while the matter was investigated.

Romero said she received a letter from the board in early March stating that her paid leave would end March 15 and directing her to return to work.

But, Romero said last week, she does not believe that the audit conducted by Moss-Adams — a firm that has provided audit services to the club for years — was a proper forensic audit. She said she also has questions about what happened to the receipt books and cash apparently collected at the Santa Cruz site but not accounted for in receipts for goods or bank deposits.

Romero told the board she won't return to work until she is satisfied the matter has been thoroughly investigated and resolved. She said she has volunteered to remain on unpaid leave in the meantime and has been handling the payroll for the club and performing other essential tasks as needed, without compensation.

Jan Still-Linderman, a spokeswoman from the national Boys & Girls Clubs of America organization, said the parent group just learned of the allegations, is taking them "very seriously" and intends to conduct a review. "Every affiliate is required to file an annual audit, and we'll be looking at those to ensure ourselves to our satisfaction there has not been any inappropriate behavior," Still-Linderman said.

Each individual club is governed by its own board of directors, Still-Linderman said, but the parent organization does require that each club comply with certain standards to remain affiliated with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America organization.

"One of the requirements is that local clubs conduct all business practices according to the highest standards," she said. "If we are out there as a character and leadership organization trying to teach young people the right way and how to be successful and these other important virtues, we certainly don't want to hold ourselves up to standards less than that. That would obviously be very hypocritical."

Romero, meanwhile, said she is working with her attorney to craft a return-to-work agreement.

Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com.