This past week, State Auditor Shad White released his annual “exceptions” report, a recapitulation of cases his office has pursued against those who have misspent or stolen the public’s money.
The majority of the report itemizes the cases the auditor’s office has pursued during the 12 months ending in June. But what I found just as interesting was near the back of the report: a six-page appendix of older demands for repayment that are still outstanding.
What struck me were how many of these have had no activity.
I excluded from my count the tens of millions of dollars of pilfered or squandered welfare funds that the state has hired private attorneys to try to recover in one of the biggest corruption scandals in Mississippi history.
Of the rest, I counted more than a hundred cases for which no payments were made during the most recent 12-month period. Fifty-four of these have never shown a payment, dating as far back as 2013. The balance on these 54 totals $5.6 million.
Someone is not doing a good job of collecting. That appears to be Attorney General Lynn Fitch.
There has always been some grumbling from state auditors about attorneys general not being as keen about going after government officials and employees for theft or misappropriations as the auditors. But it seems to have gotten worse since Fitch became the attorney general almost four years ago.
On the list of outstanding demands are four Leflore County supervisors who the state auditor says owe more than $113,000 for using coronavirus relief money to award hazard pay retroactively to county employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The auditor’s office contends the payments were illegal. The supervisors claim they weren’t, and neither they nor their bonding companies have paid a cent against the auditor’s demands.
This case has been with the Attorney General’s Office since December 2021. I asked that office what’s been done on it. I received no answer. The supervisors say they’ve had no communication ever from the attorney general about the matter and that their bonding company hasn’t heard much either.
The word apparently is getting around that the attorney general is not going to break a sweat filing lawsuits to collect the auditor’s demands, even though state law mandates that the attorney general work with the state auditor to go after the money.
Those targeted by the demands and their bonding companies may have calculated that, with no strong enforcement taking place, there’s not much to gain by paying up. One Leflore County supervisor, Robert Collins, hinted as much. He said in an interview that he would not pay a dime on the $28,270.80 demand against him unless ordered by a court.
It’s not just collections in which Fitch has seemed disinterested. She’s also — until a day or two ago — shown little appetite for enforcing the state’s campaign finance laws.
Back in the spring, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann filed a complaint with Fitch’s office about a seemingly blatant violation on the source and amount of a major contribution to the campaign of his opponent, Chris McDaniel. Fitch was pressed by reporters less than two weeks ago about what if anything her office had done to look into the complaint. Her response did not indicate much.
Michael Watson suggests the inaction is typical. As secretary of state, Watson is the keeper of campaign finance reports, but his office has no authority to prosecute those who defy the campaign finance laws or to investigate suspect contributions. Fitch’s office is the only state agency with clear authority to investigate and prosecute campaign finance violations.
Watson has said, if reelected, he may ask the Legislature to give him enforcement powers, and in the process leveled veiled criticism at Fitch, a fellow Republican. “I do not want more responsibility, and I’m not seeking more power,” Watson said during a campaign speech at the Neshoba County Fair. “But when people do not do their jobs, I will stand in the gap for Mississippians.”
If the Attorney General’s Office is not tending to these duties because it is understaffed or overworked, I’ve not heard Fitch make that claim. She apparently had enough investigators and attorneys to start her ballyhooed initiative against human trafficking.
Compelling adults or children, often under the threat of violence, to perform labor or engage in commercial sex is certainly a terrible crime. But it’s not as if other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have ignored the problem.
Maybe Fitch should have left that responsibility to them while ensuring her office was doing the work state law says it is supposed to do.
The attorney general may be starting to feel the heat. On Friday, her office announced it was opening a criminal investigation into a PAC, run by McDaniel’s campaign treasurer, that has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a recent advertising blitz attacking Hosemann.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
