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Panel approves raising penalty for false statements to state retirement system to felony
Summary
House Bill 1317, as amended, would elevate knowingly making a material false statement related to the state retirement system from a misdemeanor to a felony. Sponsor and the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System cited audit findings and an overpayment case in which a deceased member’s payments continued.
The House Judiciary Committee voted to pass House Bill 1317 as amended, elevating a knowingly made material false statement related to the state retirement system from a misdemeanor to a felony.
Representative Matthew Shepherd presented the amendment and the bill. Shepherd said the amendment "simply adds material to the term false statements" and that the change was needed because the bill elevates the penalty to a felony. He moved adoption of the amendment, and the committee adopted it by voice vote.
Representative Shepherd described the bill as addressing a problem raised by audits of the retirement systems. Amy Fetcher, executive director of the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System (APERS), told the committee that an audit had identified an overpayment in which "a member had died, and we were not informed of the death because she died out of state." Fetcher said a daughter remained on the account and continued receiving retirement payments for an extended period, creating an overpayment identified in audit. She said that because the offense historically was a misdemeanor, prosecuting such cases had been difficult and elevating it to a felony would draw greater prosecutorial attention and provide "additional tools available to law enforcement and the various prosecuting attorneys to be able to seek to address that."
Shepherd said the amended text limits the change to knowingly making a material false statement or representation; he credited Mr. Rosenzweig for raising the drafting point about "material." No members of the public signed up to speak for or against the bill. Representative Shepherd closed and moved the committee to "do pass as amended," and the motion carried by voice vote; no roll-call tally appears in the transcript.
The committee did not add further implementation instructions. APERS representatives were present to answer questions during the hearing; committee members asked about the causes that had led to the audit finding and Fetcher described the overpayment case on the record.
