Request By:
Mr. Ralph D. Roaden
Executive Director
Financial Disclosure
Review Commission
P.O. Box 431
Corbin, Kentucky 40701
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
An independent agency of state government, known as the Financial Disclosure Review Commission, was created by the General Assembly in 1978 [Ch. 288, 1978 Acts], effective June 17, 1978. See KRS 61.782 through 61.790. The commission was first established under the Governor's Executive Order 75-211 [March 4, 1975]. While functioning under the executive order and the new legislation, all funds all cated to the commission have been handled by the Department of Finance, including the maintenance of bookkeeping records for all expenditures.
Your question:
"What are the legal responsibilities and obligations of the Financial Disclosure Review Commission, Executive Director, in regard to the handling of the Financial Disclosure Review Commission funds?"
KRS 61.784(4) reads:
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"(4) The commission shall employ an executive director who shall be compensated in accordance with KRS 64.640. The executive director shall be responsible for the day to day operation of the commission and shall employ the staff necessary to carry out the functions of the commission, subject to approval of the department of personnel."
The members of the commission who are not otherwise public officers or employees are paid $100 for each day of meeting and are reimbursed for actual and necessary expenses. The members of the General Assembly appointed to the commission are compensated for attending meetings of the commission and for necessary expenses as provided in KRS 7.090(2). The executive director is compensated under KRS 64.640. In the state budget of 1978 [Ch. 167, 1978 Acts], Part I [General Fund], Item 21, $50,000 for fiscal year 1978-79 and $50,000 for fiscal year 1979-80 was appropriated for the Financial Disclosure Review Commission.
The role of the Finance Department is that role pursued in connection with state departments and agencies, generally. See KRS 45.160 [allotment of appropriations], 45.170 [disbursements, how authorized], 45.180 [expense accounts], 45.220 [examination of claims and issuance of warrants], 45.300 [system of state accounts, 45.310 [records of warrants and state treasurer receipts], 45.320 [fiscal reporting].
The accounts of the commission are subject to the audits of the state auditor, since this is a spending agency. KRS 43.050.
As Executive Director of the Commission you, as the administrative director, and the commission, must see to it that all necessary forms and records necessary under the above statutory accounting system be maintained to accurately reflect at all times precisely what the appropriated and allotted money is being spent for. It is your role to maintain a commission bookkeeping system to implement properly the state accounting system.