Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics chief has to repay $30K in comp time, auditor says
The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics director has to repay $30,122 worth of comp time that he took without permission, according to a report released by the state auditor Thursday.
The commissioner of public safety is supposed to sign off on comp time buybacks, the audit said, but John Dowdy repeatedly directed his staff to pay him that money — without knowledge of the commissioner and over the objections of his staff.
The audit does not allege criminal wrongdoing.
According to the audit, Dowdy claimed, in part, that as a sworn law enforcement officer, he was allowed to receive those comp time buybacks.
That was a problem, the audit said, because Dowdy is not a sworn law enforcement officer.
This disagreement could cost DPS more than $300,000.
According to the audit, Dowdy thought that his swearing in ceremony as MBN director in 2016 was sufficient to make him a sworn law enforcement officer.
If that was the case, Dowdy should have been getting re-certified every year, the audit said, and he wasn’t.
DPS is not allowed to pay employees that are don’t meet their certifications, the audit said, so DPS could be on the hook for Dowdy’s entire salary for the past two years.
The audit recommends that DPS determines whether Dowdy is a sworn law enforcement. If he is, DPS would have to pay $313,261 worth of salary and other payments back to the state.
The office of State Auditor Shad White also found that Dowdy was spending taxpayer money on a clothing allowance that is only supposed to go to sworn law enforcement officers.
“The Auditor’s office must fairly enforce the laws around spending. Everyone — whether you are a clerk in a small town or a director of a large state agency — must follow those laws,” White said in a statement. “Enforcing the law fairly is exactly what we are doing in this audit.”
The audit comes after Dowdy’s former chief of staff submitted a blistering letter of resignation, saying she was forced to resign.
Allison Killebrew, the bureau’s now-former chief of staff and chief counsel, sent the letter to Dowdy on Oct. 8.
“You seem to misunderstand that the MBN legal office does not represent you,” Killebrew wrote. “...While you may have lost faith in me, I lost faith in your ability to do the right thing for the employees of MBN and the state of Mississippi many months ago.”
Gov. Phil Bryant appointed Dowdy MBN director in November 2016. Dowdy previously worked in the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.
It’s unclear if Dowdy will remain MBN director much longer, or if Gov.-elect Tate Reeves will appoint a new MBN director.
Read more at ClarionLedger.com
This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 11:21 AM.