P-card abuse a target of law

Legislation would make it easier to file felony charges.

Reacting to allegations of spending abuses by DeKalb County commissioners, the state Legislature made it easier to bring felony charges against Georgia’s elected officials who misuse taxpayerfunded charge cards.

The legislation empowers county prosecutors to pursue charges against officials who buy personal items with their purchasing cards, known as P-cards, which are debit cards that draw funds from local government budgets. Previously, state law required charges to be brought in the jurisdiction where improper purchases took place, making it difficult to prosecute alleged misspending that occurred across county lines or out of state.

State lawmakers passed the measure, which had previously stalled because of concerns that it was overly broad, less than an hour before the midnight conclusion of this year’s legislative session April 2.

House Bill 192 also

requires county commissions, city councils and school boards that use P-cards to vote on rules and transaction limits. The bill is pending before Gov. Nathan Deal.

“It’s a game-changer for us,” said DeKalb District Attorney Robert James, who supported the legislation. “There are several cases I haven’t been able to get involved in because of jurisdictional issues.”

James didn’t discuss what cases he was referring to, but several DeKalb commissioners have used their P-cards for airline tickets, personal cellphone bills, gift cards, Amazon purchases and expensive meals, according to reporting by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Federal prosecutors handled a case against former Commissioner Elaine Boyer, who was sentenced last month to serve 14 months in prison for defrauding taxpayers of more than $100,000. The AJC identified $16,800 in personal expenses on Boyer’s Pcard, including payments for air travel, rental cars, cellphone expenses and a ski resort booking. Boyer also illegally funneled about $80,000 to a fake legislative consultant in a kickback scheme.

No other DeKalb official has faced charges for P-card spending.

Rep. Alan Powell, RHartwell, said he sponsored the P-card bill to institute higher standards of conduct for elected officials.

The legislation allows violators to be charged with the offense of illegal use of financial transaction cards, which comes with a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment and a $5,000 fine.

“When one elected official does something wrong, we all get splattered,” Powell said. “While the genesis was the publicity stirred from a specific county, I learned it’s not just about DeKalb County. ... I’ve found this has happened in a lot of areas, in a lot of the smaller parts of Georgia.”

Sen. John Albers, RRoswell, had tried to prevent the bill from moving forward because he believed it wasn’t necessary to pass a state law in response to DeKalb’s local issues. He said he plans to revisit the P-card debate during next year’s legislative session.

“My concern about HB 192 is the state interfering with local control,” Albers said in an email. “If the federal government created a law stating how the state of Georgia must do expenses and per diem, we would be very upset. We cannot complain about overreach and then do the same thing.”

Powell had first sought to ban local elected officials from using P-cards, but he settled for restrictions after the Association County Commissioners of Georgia and the Georgia Municipal Association said they serve a legitimate purpose, especially when officials in local governments are responsible for purchasing.

“It’s good to have rules .... so the public knows they’re for public purposes and not for private purposes,” said Todd Edwards, associate legislative director for ACCG. “It’s good for officials; it’s good for the public; and it’s good for the taxpayer.”