Fred Sainz, the spokesman for Mayor Jerry Sanders, said that the statements he made to the Union-Tribune for a story published on the Kroll probe were indeed true, although he offered a caveat.
Sainz said the Kroll audit committee told the mayor that the group “intended to share” the information gleaned from its probe into the city’s financial practices with other interested groups, such as the Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and KPMG, who is auditing the city’s 2003 financial statements. He just didn’t know when the sharing would take place.
“I don’t know where in the sharing process that is,” Sainz said.
Kroll was slated to speak to the council this week about its report, but the presentation has been pushed back again.
Despite Aguirre’s concerns, Sainz said it was “entirely appropriate” for Kroll to share the report with federal investigators and KPMG. Those agencies are demanding certain information from the report, so they should be able to comment to Kroll what its probe – if anything – lacks, Sainz said.
The city should not interfere with that process by receiving it before the other parties, he said, pointing to the city’s experience in this arena. Law firm Vinson & Elkins conducted two similar probes into the city’s books to satisfy KPMG, and the auditing house determined that V&E was too close to the city for the probes to be independent.
“We have not seen it and every argument can be made that we should not see it,” Sainz said. “[The SEC, Justice Department, KPMG] are part of the investigation. Everybody is not equal here.”