Governor Cracking Down On Travel Advances

By Mike Luery

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- For years, state workers have been taking millions of taxpayer dollars to take trips – without repaying the money they owed. Today, Governor Jerry Brown ordered state agencies to get that taxpayer money back.

"This situation reinforces the worst stereotype of ineffective and inefficient government," the governor said today in a prepared statement. "I have ordered state agencies to immediately investigate the backlog of uncollected debts and find every penny owed to taxpayers. State agencies must regain control of this program," Brown stated.

Some of the uncollected debts have been on the books for years – not just for travel advances, but also salary advances that were never reimbursed.

"It's really shocking," said Gil Duran, the Governor Press Secretary. In a one-on-one interview in the Governor's office, Duran told CBS 13, " For a state with the kind of budget crisis we have, to have a system where debts that are owed by state employees to the state are simply not collected - and in some cases may not be collectible is just not acceptable at all. There's just no excuse for it."

The governor is ordering state agencies to complete all travel and salary advances within 30 days through an expense claim – or the money will be deducted from the employee's paycheck.
And that money adds up.

A 2009 audit conducted by State Controller John Chiang found:

•    More than $13 million in advances that were uncollected at eleven state agencies
•    The total included $500,000 owed for more than 3 years
•    State agencies were either slow to collect the money or failed to collect the funds at all

The Controller's audits can be found here: http://www.sco.ca.gov/aud_state_agency_audits.html

One of the bigger ones involved 11 state agencies. Also, there were these:

Department of Mental Health
Cal Fire (1) (2)
Social Services

Ironically, state agencies that don't begin collection proceedings within three years are prohibited from collecting the debt – unless they have the employee's consent.  But the rules of the road are about to change – in favor of the taxpayer.

If you find other examples of government waste, contact onthemoney@kovr.com. You can also follow On The Money stories in progress via Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/mikeluery