By Mavuto Kalulu
Public corruption exists at all levels of government. The impact of the abuse of public services may be strongly felt at the local government level because of the direct contact these government officials have in the provision of services. In Arkansas, for example, county governments are responsible for emergency medical services, fire prevention and protection services, solid waste collection and disposal services and public health services. When public officials misuse public resources, it means less resources to provide such services.
Quantifying the amount of resources abused by public officials is not an easy task. By its nature corruption is secretive and hence the known cases may be but a fraction of the whole. Despite that, it is important to attempt to quantify the level of resource abuse taking place using previous cases. To do so for Arkansas I relied on information obtained from various Prosecuting Attorneys Disposition of Matters Referred by Legislative Joint Auditing Committee reports. Under the Ark. Code Ann. § 10-4-419, the Legislative Auditor is required to notify appropriate prosecuting attorneys of transactions reflecting “ evidence of apparent unauthorized disbursements or unaccounted for funds or property by a public official or employee.” The reports prepared by the Legislative Audit provide a summary of the disposition of matters referred to the Prosecuting Attorneys of the State’s 28 judicial districts. Table 1 includes the total number of matters that Legislative Audit referred to the Prosecuting Attorneys at all levels of government in Arkansas in each year between 2010 and 2017. A total of 1,856 matters were referred to the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee over the 7 year period.
| Table 1: Matters Referred to Legislative Joint Auditing Committee by the Legislative Audit (2010-2017) | |||||||||
| Year | Matters referred | Charges Filed | Conviction | Pending | Acquitted /Dismissed | Prosecution Declined | Insufficient Evidence | Other/ethics violation | Under Review |
| 2010 | 223 | 40 | 33 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 82 | 42 | 58 |
| 2011 | 181 | 23 | 16 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 91 | 33 | 32 |
| 2012 | 195 | 28 | 20 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 84 | 32 | 46 |
| 2013 | 246 | 33 | 18 | 14 | 1 | 5 | 119 | 43 | 46 |
| 2014 | 259 | 50 | 28 | 20 | 2 | 27 | 87 | 51 | 44 |
| 2015 | 246 | 42 | 32 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 88 | 55 | 53 |
| 2016 | 244 | 32 | 19 | 10 | 3 | 12 | 77 | 76 | 48 |
| 2017 | 262 | 38 | 23 | 13 | 2 | 13 | 100 | 79 | 32 |
| Total | 1856 | 286 | 189 | 81 | 16 | 73 | 728 | 411 | 359 |
| Source: Exhibit I from various Prosecuting Attorneys Summary of Disposition Reports of Matters Referred by Legislative Joint Auditing Committee | |||||||||
Table 1 also provides what became of the matters that were referred to the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee. For example, 286 of them were filed in courts for prosecution (column 3). Of particular interest is the 189 of the 286 cases that resulted in convictions. This number helps us calculate the amount of public resources that were misappropriated by public officials in the state between 2010 and 2017.
How much in public resources did Arkansans end up losing as a result of these 189 conviction cases? Table 2 provides a summary of the total amount of resources that were abused in each of these years, as well as the total amount of tax dollars lost over this 10 year period.
| Table 2: Total Dollar Value of the 189 Cases that Resulted in Convictions | |
| Year | Amount |
| 2010 | 3,575,442 |
| 2011 | 553,832 |
| 2012 | 411,348 |
| 2013 | 887,666 |
| 2014 | 913,577 |
| 2015 | 534,216 |
| 2016 | 493,921 |
| 2017 | 5,238,128 |
| Total | 12,608,130 |
| Source: Exhibit IV of various Prosecuting Attorneys Disposition reports | |
The $12.6 million total is tax dollars that were abused at all levels of government. Of the $12.6 million, roughly $2.8 million was misappropriated by county governments. Table 3 shows the amounts that were misappropriated at county governments in Arkansas in each of the years between 2010 and 2017.
| Table 3: Total Dollar Value of 39 Conviction Cases at County Level | |
| Year | Amount |
| 2010 | 199,185 |
| 2011 | 94,831 |
| 2012 | 126,694 |
| 2013 | 49,084 |
| 2014 | 322,017 |
| 2015 | 267,333 |
| 2016 | 52,239 |
| 2017 | 1,668,420 |
| Total | 2,779,803 |
| Source: Exhibit IV of various Prosecuting Attorneys Disposition reports | |
These $2.8 million are tax dollars that county governments could have used to provide better services for their constituents. Identifying misappropriation of public funds should not be the responsibility of Legislative Audit alone. Taxpayers have a role to play as well by requiring that their elected officials are transparent in the way they use resources. The hope is that the information contained in this article and in the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics Policy Brief titled “Let the Sun Shine in: Improving Access to Arkansas Counties’ Financial information” would inspire constituents to demand more transparency and encourage them to hold public officials accountable. $2.4 million of $2.8 million misappropriated at county level occurred in counties that publish no fiscal information according the transparency report produced by the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics. Fiscal transparency can deter public officials from engaging in corrupt practices as it adds another layer of scrutiny on the use of public funds. Preventing corruption through transparency is better than curing it through criminal convictions.