The Faulkner County Sheriff’s Office has had some major problems over the past few years. Leadership and Management problems have left the department lacking in many areas. Among some of the worst have been the egregious acts of theft and fraud investigators found within the department. However prosecutors did not charge anyone with a crime and as a result over $13,000 in misspent money will not be recovered.
In Arkansas we have statues and constitutional provisions that prohibit the use of public money for private purposes but the penalties for these violations, when enforced, are only removal from office and a small fine. This simply does not adequately protect our tax dollars; we need this situation to change; we need a law that makes the misuse of public funds a crime.
In some states it is a felony to misuse public funds. The penalties for such violations are punishable by fines, restitution, loss of employment, and jail time. In Idaho recent additions to their law added specific wording to include the misuse of government issued credit cards. California also has laws that make the misuse of public funds a felony. Why doesn’t Arkansas have a law against the misuse of public funds?
Recently we asked you, our readers, to contact your legislators and asked them to consider this idea and make this new law, we to have approached our legislators and it’s paid off. State Representative Preston Scroggin has had this proposal drafted into a bill that will be before the legislature in January.
The Bill, Draft MBM516, will amend Arkansas Criminal Code Title 5 to include a section that makes the misuse of public funds a crime with the top count being a Class B felony. Anyone convicted of this crime, should it become law, will face jail time if the value of the money misused is over $2500.
While this new legislation will not prevent the misuse of public funds it will however give prosecutors more to work with when prosecuting cases such as we have seen here in Faulkner County. It will also give would be violators less wiggle room in trying to side step the spending laws of Arkansas.
The battle has been won but the war is far from over. We need your continuing support by making sure our legislators, both new and old, vote for this legislation. In our area we have two Senate positions and one State Representative position in question. We need to ask the candidates in these races for their support and vote for the ones receptive to this bill.
Together we can make a difference; together we can change the law.
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