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C. Agency Staff

Once referred to the Department of Justice contractor agency staff must cooperate fully with them to provide whatever additional evidence is requested. If the Department of Justice feels they have sufficient evidence they will initiate prosecutorial proceedings. If the Department of Justice refuses to initiate prosecutorial proceedings, (because of jurisdictional issues or the dollar amount involved), contractor agency must seek recoupment from agency staff of the dollar amount in dispute. If the agency is unsuccessful in collecting this amount from the agency staff person(s) involved, the contractor agency will be liable for full reinstatement of the amount in question. For additional action, agencies should refer to Board approved personnel policies for direction.

1004. PENALTIES AND RECOUPMENT

Any client, vendor or agency staff person found guilty of fraud by the Department of Justice shall be liable for repayment of benefits and subject to penalties. Penalties and recoupment methods will be established by the Department of Justice in accordance with the State Public Assistance Code, Title 31, Chapter 5, Section 516, Fraudulent Acts: Penalties, which states:

“Whoever knowingly obtains, attempts to obtain or aids or abets any person to obtain, by means of a willfully false statement or representation or by impersonation, or other fraudulent device or by failure to report material facts to the Department, assistance to which he is not entitled, shall be fined not more than $500 or imprisoned for not more than 6 months or both, and may be required to make restitution” or with any other law as may be amended. Funds that are not returned to the contractor or agency following recoupment procedures must be completely documented for monitoring and fiscal audit purposes. 1005. FRAUD REPORT

The contractor agency must complete a fraud report and submit to DSSC/OCS as soon as fraud is suspected by the agency either through agency investigation or information gained from outside sources. The fraud report should include:

1) The steps taken by the contractor agency to investigate suspected fraud case.