(Jerry) Brown cracks down on cash advances left uncollected

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Gov. Jerry Brown ordered state agencies on Wednesday to do a better job collecting money after an audit discovered that 11 state agencies had failed to gather $13.3 million in debts, mostly from employees who received cash advances.

At issue are millions of dollars in salary or travel advances that were paid to employees and never recouped by the state. An audit issued by state Controller John Chiang in 2010 found that many departments were failing to collect this money, in some cases for years. The Department of Transportation was named the biggest scofflaw, with $3.2 million owed.

In a written decree Wednesday, Brown said state agencies "must regain control" of the revolving funds used to pay out such advances.

"It's shocking that the state has apparently failed to collect millions of dollars in salary and travel advances owed by state employees," Brown said. "This situation reinforces the worst stereotype of ineffective and inefficient government, and I have ordered state agencies to immediately investigate the backlog of uncollected debts and find every penny owed to taxpayers."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/21/MN5S1J4N7Q.DTL

[tridim]

1. Jerry Brown is a real Governor

Not to bash Clinton, but I still wish he had been the nominee in 1992.

[Lance_Boyle]

2. State employees can get cash advances (i.e. free loans) from the state?

Never had that in NC when I was a state employee. Nice perk if you can get it, I guess. Too bad the practice was so abused.