- Associated Press - Monday, April 8, 2019

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Louisiana has recovered more than $15,000 that was improperly paid to a former Louisiana Tax Commission administrator who investigators saw playing golf, shopping and sitting in a bar at times when he was supposed to be at work for the commission, according to state officials.

Tax Commission Chairman Lawrence Chehardy mentioned the recovered money in a letter that was included in the release of a state legislative auditor report outlining more than $17,600 in allegedly improper expenses and wages paid to Charles Abels III.

Compiled in cooperation with state police, the report includes surveillance photographs of a man identified as Abels doing a variety of non-job-related things when the report says he was supposed to be at work for the commission, which oversees local tax assessors and handles taxpayer appeals.

Abels resigned earlier this year and Chehardy said in a January interview that Abels had been suspended in November. Chehardy said he asked for assistance from the legislative auditor’s office after complaints about Abels reached the governor’s office and the state commissioner of administration.

State police arrested Abels in January in connection with their investigation. However, formal charges have not been filed.

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore said in an email that his office has received the legislative auditor report but would not make a charging decision until it also had investigative reports from state police.

Abels’ attorney, Mary Olive Pierson, declined to comment on audit specifics but noted that Abels was a salaried employee. She said he was on call around the clock.

“He wasn’t an hourly employee,” Pierson said. “He had to work when he had to work.”

She said the $15,288 that Chehardy said had been recovered was the value of accumulated annual leave that Abels waived as a “show of good faith.”

In his letter responding to the audit, Chehardy said the commission agrees with the findings. He said changes have been made at the commission to address recommendations in the audit report, which also says Abels and others may have improperly received expenses for conferences where they weren’t registered.

“Internal controls over employee time and attendance, leave usage, work locations, rental vehicles, travel reimbursements and conference attendance have been adopted,” the letter said.

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