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This report is a follow-up to PEER’s 1981 review of the Governor’s Office of Job Development and Training (GOJDT) and includes a section on the program effectiveness of the adult CETA programs administered by GOJDT during FY 1982. PEER takes no exceptions in regard to those areas in which a follow-up review was conducted. PEER did conclude, however, that three of GOJDT’s CETA components did not prove to be effective in terms of placing CETA participants in permanent employment upon termination from the CETA program.
For several decades prior to 1970, the electric power industry in general, and the Mississippi Power and Light Company (MP&L) in particular, experienced a period of increasing demand and decreasing rates. During this time, based on optimistic forecasts of future demand, Middle South Utilities planned the construction of massive amounts of new generating capacity, including a nuclear plant at Grand Gulf in Claiborne County, Mississippi, and a coal-fueled plant in Independence County, Arkansas. This report traced the events leading to the decision to construct Grand Gulf and summarized the Grand Gulf hearing before the Mississippi Public Service Commission. The report also reviewed events in Arkansas and Mississippi which led to the AP&L decision to sell Independence and summarizes the three hearings before the Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC). The report examined the role of the MPSC staff in both cases and concluded with a discussion of the effect of these decisions on rates.
Since its creation in 1973, the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry has received for its operation $25,812,471 in state general funds, $5,692,302 in other funds, enrolled 318 students, and produced 107 dentists, of whom an estimated 68 currently practice dentistry in Mississippi.
The University of Mississippi Dental School, the third smallest dental school in the nation, is a high cost institution which expends 58 percent more than the national average to educate its students and receives more state appropriated funds per Doctor of Dental Science Equivalent than any other dental school in the United States.
PEER noted several inefficiencies including underutilization of clinic space; inadequate control over dental supplies and some equipment items; a lack of effective patient credit and collection procedures; and an inadequately controlled faculty private practice program.
PEER believes that the Dental School should improve its management and reduce its cost of operation and high dependence on state general funds.
The fifth in a series, the FY 1982 Indicators report provided a broad range of financial and management information concerning the operations of state agencies to the executive and legislative branches of Mississippi state government. As in previous years, PEER staff compiled the information from responses to questionnaires mailed to all state agencies and budget units.
The report presented questionnaire responses for the following functions: Legislative; Judiciary and Justice; Executive and Administrative; Fiscal Affairs; Public Education; Higher Education; Public Health; Hospitals and Hospital Schools; Agriculture and Commerce; Conservation; Insurance and Banking; Corrections; Social Welfare; Military, Police and Veterans’ Affairs; Miscellaneous; Public Works; and Special Fund Agencies.
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife Conservation manages and protects the state’s wildlife and marine resources. Organized in 1979 as the product of four formerly independent agencies, the department oversees nearly one million acres of wildlife habitat concentrated in thirty management areas, twenty lakes, and six reservoirs. While the agency is making progress in managing and protecting wildlife and marine resources, it still must solve several administrative problems. Chief among these are consolidation of required administrative functions, collection of half-fine money from justices of the peace, and adequate internal control over funds from concession and license sales.
The Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) has not adopted guidelines controlling distribution of complimentary athletic admission tickets by state universities (except that IHL required universities to furnish complimentary tickets to IHL Board members, former Board members, and surviving spouses). During the 1980 football season, universities distributed 76,611 complimentary tickets worth $684,356 including 6,411 tickets worth $60,572 to public officials and staffs. Included in the 6,411 were 3,421 tickets worth $34,052 received by IHL and staff (including former board members and surviving spouses). Because IHL refused to adopt a controlling administrative policy, the Legislature should accomplish needed restrictions by statute.
This report investigated abuse and abuse potential at each of the state’s five residential facilities for the mentally retarded. While the centers had taken many positive steps toward the detection and prevention of resident abuse, shortcomings remained in the system. Most significant was the lack of a comprehensive monitoring structure. In addition, PEER found that the centers did not always follow critical policies and procedures, unlicensed personnel administered medication in certain units, direct care personnel did not properly supervise residents at all times, and three centers were deficient in the areas of fire protection and safety provision.
This report evaluated management performance at the Mississippi School for the Deaf, which provided educational services to 262 hearing-impaired residential students in school year 1981-82. PEER noted major weaknesses in financial operations, physical plant maintenance, administrative organization, internal communications, and Board of Trustee operations. The report made appropriate recommendations to correct identified deficiencies and included an extended analysis of citizen boards and commissions.
The State Department of Education, Division of Vocational-Technical Education, spent $42,732,180 in FY 1981, including $30,406,556 in state general funds. This report discussed problems in budgeting, fund allocations, equipment inventory procedures, advances to local programs, and staff morale. The division circumvented Budget Commission purchasing controls and legislative intent through an unauthorized purchase of two luxury passenger vans. PEER’s sample equipment inventory count revealed 52 unlocated items worth $56,665.
This report presented the PEER Committee’s 1981 Annual Report to the Mississippi Legislature. It detailed accomplishments for 1981 as well as major evaluations in progress and projections for 1982. In addition to 1981 activities, the report included brief summaries of all PEER reports released since the Committee’s creation in 1971.
The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN) is the state agency responsible for enforcing laws pertaining to illicit street narcotic traffic. This report detailed PEER’s evaluation of the bureau’s efforts at fulfilling its drug enforcement duties.
Although legally under the supervision of the Department of Public Safety, the bureau has operated as an independent state agency because it has a separate appropriation and the director is appointed by the Governor. Bureau agents are not entitled to twenty-year retirement as are highway patrolmen although agents are engaged in equally or more hazardous duties. Although MBN has received special funds over the years, it has not provided information on such funds for the Legislature’s use in appropriating bureau funds.
In the report, PEER reviewed three feasible organizational alternative views regarding the bureau: retain the current system, institute administrative changes to include changing the law to provide early retirement for bureau agents, or reorganize.