DMV audit raises bad check questions

The Department of Motor Vehicles should have the power to refuse customers who have given the state bad checks, Gov. Kenny Guinn said Thursday.

The comment was sparked by an executive branch audit of the motor vehicles' revenue collecting divisions.

Guinn was advised by Treasurer Brian Krolicki that some 70 percent of the 20,000 bad checks the state got last year were written to DMV.

The audit recommended seeking legislation to prohibit customers from doing any further business with the department until outstanding bad checks are paid. Auditors said DMV has no authority at this time to stop someone who owes the department from registering another vehicle or doing other business.

Guinn questioned why legislation would even be needed.

"I'm more than willing to set an executive order that says if you give us a bad check on one car, we're not going to take your check on another," he said.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said after the meeting she would look into whether statutory authority was needed to make that order.

The audit also recommended bad checks be automatically resubmitted by the bank instead of making the state order each one run through again. Krolicki said the contract with the bank was being changed so that all bad checks to the state are automatically resubmitted. He said estimates are half of those checks will clear the second time through.