Posted on Fri, May. 09, 2008
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N. Miss. drug task force audit completed
The Associated Press
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JACKSON, Miss. --
The North Central Narcotics Task Force has been cited in a federal audit with some paperwork problem but not with mismanagement alleged by state officials.The task force was disbanded earlier this year when the state cut off its money.
The audit was conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General's Office.
Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner Steve Simpson, who officially started in his post last week, said he hopes to put to rest the bad blood between the department and the sheriffs who oversee the eight-county task force.
"I'm going to go to these sheriffs and see what we can do to get this North Central task force back to work," Simpson said Thursday.
North Central, the state's oldest and largest task force, was started in 1986 to target street-level drug sales. Over the years, the task force has worked in Coahoma, Claiborne, Grenada, Holmes, Humphreys, Leflore, Tunica and Yazoo counties using video surveillance to catch drug dealers.
The task force had five agents and a commander when it folded earlier this year.
According to the May 2 report, inspectors found "practices for documenting staff assignments and activities were weak" but no money was missing or misspent.
"We were able to trace accountability of confidential funds through other documents such as informant files, agents' disbursement ledgers, evidence logs, receipt books, and sub-grantee reporting worksheets," the inspectors reported.
Since all of the available grant money was allotted to other task forces last December, it is unclear where North Central will find the money to restart its activities. The task force had requested $301,000.
Information from: The Clarion-Ledger, http://www.clarionledger.com
