A bill stripping the State Auditor of some of his powers to investigate fraud passed a Senate Committee. The bill is called the Mississippi Corruption Act, appropriately named as it seeks to protect the corrupt.
State Senator David Parker authored SB #2847. It was single-referred to the committee he chairs, the Accountability, Efficiency, and Transparency Committee. The committee passed the bill Friday. Auditor Shad White rebuked Senator Parker's committee Friday:
Unfortunately the Mississippi Corruption Act—the bill stripping my office of key powers—has passed committee and as of last night is on the Senate calendar. That means it could come up for a vote before the full state senate any time. This bill was written by a key chairman for LT Gov Delbert Hosemann, and the chair said yesterday he wrote it in consultation with Attorney General Fitch. The bill, SB 2847, takes away our ability to look for waste, to audit some organizations, and to go to court to get money back. There’s no reason for it, unless these establishment politicians are trying to hide something. If this is how it’s going to be—Shad vs The Swamp—I will fight at every turn. Please call Lt Gov Hosemann and your state senator and tell them you’re against the Mississippi Corruption Act. 601-359-3200. Taxpayers do not want a watchdog who’s had his teeth cut out!
Strong stuff but the bill does indeed cut the State Auditor's power to investigate. Attorney General Lynn Fitch's Chief of Staff Michelle Williams said "I would encourage people to read the text of the bill because he’s just not being truthful. Here's the language (the text, Section f, is provided later in this post.). He's always had the authority to do this, but he hasn’t used it. The Legislature just thinks the Auditor needs to be required to audit.
What possessed the good State Senator to sponsor such a bill? Apparently Mr. Parker is upset because the State Auditor and Desoto County District Attorney are prosecuting one of his defendants, er, constituents. Fox13 (Memphis) reported:
"Last year around September 12th is the state auditor came into town," he told FOX13, referencing a press conference where White and DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton, announced charges against former Horn Lake Alderman Charlie Roberts. "During COVID, this gentleman lost his job, like many people did during COVID. He was serving as an alderman of Horn Lake, and aldermen of Horn Lake do not have a high salary. I want to say it's about $10,000 a year. So he applied for unemployment insurance and he did not put the $10,000 of salary on that application," said Parker. Parker said that's when Roberts received unemployment benefits. White and Barton announced they were charging him with one count of fraudulent statements and representations. Parker is calling this a mistake. "He was wrong. He made a mistake. But I can say that in a certain situation, I might make the same mistake," he said. Parker said that's one reason why he believes his bill is needed. One goal is to limit the ability of the auditor to bring criminal charges against elected officials. He said he wants more of a collaboration between the auditor's office and the Attorney General's office before action like this is taken. FOX13 asked Parker if he feels that Roberts should or should not be held accountable. "The mistake was brought to his attention and he sold his house and used the proceeds to pay the money back. And after I explained that to our state auditor, he told me he's still a criminal and he needs to be in jail and I don't understand that," he said. He then added, "We need grace. You know, we need understanding. And when we don't have that, we live in an authoritarian age. And that's not where I think we should be." District Attorney Barton told FOX13 this is still an active case. Article
It sounds like Mr. Parker's beef is with the District Attorney who is prosecuting the case, not the State Auditor.
Mr. Parker is being somewhat disingenuous. Although he claims he just wants the State Auditor and Shad White to work together, the bill goes much further. JJ reported on January 27:
(f) To postaudit and * * *preaudit and investigate the financial affairs of the levee boards; agencies created by the Legislature or by executive order of the Governor; profit or nonprofit business entities administering programs financed by funds in the amount of Ten Million Dollars ($10,000,000.00) or more flowing through the State Treasury or through any of the agencies of the state, or its subdivisions and may preaudit nonprofit business entities administering programs financed by funds in an amount less than Ten Million Dollars ($10,000,000.00) flowing through the State Treasury or through any of the agencies of the state, or its subdivisions;The bill bars the State Auditor from investigating private companies, profit or non-profit, that receive less than $10 million in state funds. This new language would not have prohibited the State Auditor from investigating Nancy New's company but it would have barred him from investigating anyone who received less than $10 million as a sub grantee from Nancy New. Hmm.... who would that apply to? Quarterbacks? Running backs? Wrasslers? Anyone else? We do love our jocks in Mississippi. The new protected class.
* Section (K) of the bill changes what the State Auditor can audit. The current law states:
(k) The State Auditor shall have the authority to contract with qualified public accounting firms to perform selected audits required in paragraphs (d), (e), (f) and (j) of this section, if funds are made available for such contracts by the Legislature, or if funds are available from the governmental entity covered by paragraphs (d), (e), (f) and (j). Such audits shall be made in accordance with generally accepted standards of auditing. Earlier post
The bill will make it much easier for the politicians to create slush funds for the favored few.
Kingfish note: Instead of limiting the State Auditor's powers, the bill should give him the ability to prosecute cases without the Attorney General or District Attorney. Doing so gives the State Auditor more power but also makes him more accountable. No blaming an Attorney General for not prosecuting cases. That crutch would be gone.
28 comments:
Nice try KF, but the Auditor did not 'audit' quarterbacks, running backs or wrasslers' before. The expenditures made to them were discovered from the audit of Nancy New and her operations- and the audit of the State Agency.
Yes, he recommended that the money paid to these folks be recovered - but now that you've stuck your "KF NOTES" into the water, tell us where, when and how he 'audited' these individuals- or how this bill would stop him from taking the same actions he did -- you know, back when he didnt audit ' former Governors'.
Shad brought this on himself by exceeding his authority. Shad was great at first, but now what little power he does possess, has gone straight to his head, and he thinks he can do whatever he wants. Auditing, and auditing only, is what his office should do.
And, KF, are you advocating that the power to prosecute be removed from the AG and given to the Auditor's Office, or would they both possess it?
@10:49 - I’d agree, Shad is just as corrupt as the rest of them. His protection of Phil Bryant at the expense of the State should disqualify him from public office.
Can anyone give a reason this bill is reasonable? Not liking Shad, Shad shoulda, coulda, blah, blah, blah, low hanging fruit, ad infinitum, ad nauseum are not good reasons.
RMQ
If they were attacking Shad for not going after the corrupt governor, I’d agree with Kingfish. Instead, they are going after Shad not for his failure to protect the state from his buddy, but for his intent to prosecute their corrupt buddies. Everyone sucks here, no one is above board. MS politicians could stand toe to toe with the cartels or any other criminal organization.
I'm with KF on this one. The auditor needs plenty of bark and bite. MS is the most corrupt state in the nation and Shad is the only one doing anything about it. He definitely needs the latitude to do his job without it being contingent on the AG, or any other DA.
One really amazing aspect of the TANF scandal is how Shad White (with KF’s and others help) has laid the entire situation at Nancy New’s feet. Rarely a mention of John Davis (the boss) or Christy Webb (who received as much money if not more than Nancy), and certainly very little responsibility to be laid at the feet of Phil Bryant (the boss’s boss). It’s all been very orchestrated and intentional, especially with regard to ignoring and forgetting about Phil Bryant’s text messages, the ones he could find anyway.
The Lt. Governor is just trying to deliver a gut punch to his biggest competitor in the upcoming gubernatorial race. Cheap shot, Delbert. Cheap shot.
Delbert the desperate really wants that Governor's mansion.
I hope he never gets it.
If the State would unseal the court filings in the TANF case, your squeaky clean opinions of Shad would change. The odd thing is the AG’s office knows this too. And, they all know the evidence incriminates Phil. So the question is, are they willing to risk further exposing Phil in order to expose Shad?
I hope the bill passes
How y'all yammer on about Phil Bryant and Shad when Lynn Fitch, Jody Owens, and the Biden DOJ have all declined to prosecute him.
Heck, at least Shad, Jody, and the Biden DOJ did something with the case, which is more than Lynn can say. At least she's accepting campaign donations from the law firm that's working on the TANF case instead of her.
So no one gonna talk about how all of this is happening because Shad is pretty much using the State Auditor’s Office to run his campaign for governor? Writing all these editorials on immigration and stuff while busting other people for abusing tax payer money? Aight then
@12:01, that is what Democrats do. Page right out of Obama's book.
Since when was this a Shad White water-holder blog? Not a good look, KF.
@1229
If the AG's office has information that incriminates Phil and implicates Shad, then y'all should be crowing at her for being a LITERAL PROSECUTOR and doing nothing about it.
This is why people hate politicians.
1:03, "The Democrats" had nothing to do with this one. This one is all on the MSGOP.
I smell Lynn Fitch behind this skullduggery, and it 's smelly.
This is the "south." Members of the "good ol' boys club" have a lifetime "get out of jail free card."
Pretty obvious here which Republicans are just Democrats that swapped hats to get elected instead of actually being small government conservatives that are not in favor of corruption. I find the term RINO to be a gauche talk radio buzzword but in this case the shoe fits quite a few people.
ANY taxpayer should have the right to investigate the handling of their public funds. ANYBODY who objects to that is up to no good.
No matter what. No matter the interest of Sen. Parker who birthed the bill let's get Delbert. Put aside all that other factual stuff. Let's get Delbert. Everything bad coming out of the senate is Delbert's stuff. Nothing good. Let's get him. Get Delbert that's the ticket.
How's that Shad.
Shad has taken using his official position to pander politically to a new height and he is paying the price for it.
Let's just say there was no Farve or Bryant investigation, or other "famous names" in other investigations, or a book that is a tell all and pissed some off.
Let's just say State Auditor Shad White and staff was sitting quietly and doing well not much.
Would all this drama about legislation in a bill be all the news????
So either the voters want an auditor to do the job or they don't.
Can't have it both ways. Nope.
I'm with KF on this one.
While you all have all this time on your hands, would you use it to email your government officials to back the **** off on this particular bill?
I feel like this bill was written fist for Shad, and then fished out until someone came up with the situation to scape-goat it on so as not to make it 100% about Shad. I don't like Shad's arrogance no more than most, however, this is a bad look for Delbert, Lynn, Parker, and everyone else who voted Yay.
Fox security has this hen house right where they want it.
A $10M threshold is laughable. These politicians can't stand themselves or their friends being held accountable for waste and fraud
A pox on both the Senate & the Auditor. We need mature adults in these positions.
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