Bob Barr on the Bowers-Hyde DeKalb Corruption Report

Atlanta, GA – Bob Barr, who served previously as the presidentially-appointed U. S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia and later represented Georgia’s 7^th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, today issued the following statement regarding the recent, public “Report of Special Investigators” that detailed evidence of corruption and mismanagement in DeKalb County, Georgia:

“As a former federal prosecutor and an eight-year member of the United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, I have read with interest the recent Report prepared by former Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers and Richard Hyde that investigated the quality and integrity of government officials in DeKalb County.  I share the concerns of this Report’s authors, and support their call for further investigation and action, in order to correct what appears to be a long-festering pattern of spending of taxpayer monies by officials in DeKalb with little or no regard for ethics or for the letter and the intent of Georgia law. ”

“I also am disturbed at the initial reaction to Mr. Bowers’ Report by DeKalb Interim CEO Lee May who, rather than at least agree that further investigation is called for, blasted the Report’s authors and stoutly defended his office against every fact and finding in the Report. This appears to reflect precisely what Mr. Bowers discovered and detailed in his Report; namely, that many officials in the County consider the monies entrusted to them by the taxpayers to be nothing more than their personal piggy bank, to be used for whatever purposes they wish, regardless of whether those expenditures bear any relationship to the authorities and responsibilities of the office they hold.”

“While the specific language in federal laws as related to public officials may vary from that in Georgia law, the fundamental intent and purposes are the same – public monies are to be expended by public officials only for purposes consistent with their official duties and responsibilities; and actions undertaken by government officials cannot be tied to monies or other things of value received apart from their lawful budgets and salaries.”

“The Report by Mr. Bowers should be taken seriously by DeKalb County and by our state government.  Rather than be dismissed out-of-hand as Mr. May has done, the Report should serve as the foundation for a far more extensive and detailed investigation by appropriate officials at the state and perhaps the federal level as well.”