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Introduction The demise of the USSR is a complex matter and not to be oversimplified. There were many factors, including a changing world-economic climate. But historians agree that one of the largest contributors to the toppling of Soviet Communism was the incredible personal corruption of government officials. They used their positions, not to serve the nation's starving farmers and factory workers, but to line their own pockets. They exploited the system, nibbling at its foundations until the whole edifice teetered and collapsed from the inside. D A V I D J E R E M I A H The Random House College Dictionary defines malfeasance as "the performance by a public official of an act that is legally unjustified, harmful, or contrary to law." This book spotlights embezzlementof public funds in Mississippi and the involvement of the Office of the State Auditor in investigating such malfeasance and recoveringpublic monies. Thirty-seven representative cases areexamined in detail to illustrate howthe embezzlements wereperpetrated, what motivated them, and how they were detected. The scope of the problem is portrayed with the goal of raising public awareness and indignation concerning the theft of public funds. It is hoped that public awarenesswill lead to reforms necessary to reduce the embezzlement problem that continues to strain the financial resources of the Magnolia State. Curtis Wilkie, a native Mississippian and former correspondent for the Boston Globe,wrote in his 2001 book Dixie:A Personal Odyssey Through Events That Shaped the Modern South: "We are a different people, with our odd customs and manner of speaking and our stubborn, stubborn pride. Perhaps we are no kinder than others, but it seems to me that we are. I would never claim superiority over the people of Washington or Boston or Jerusalem or the other places I've lived and traveled,but I found during my long exile that we are surely no worse." On the other hand, a 2004nationally publicized report indicated that Mississippi was worse than all the other states regarding malfeasanceof public officials. Corporate Crime Reporter released a report entitled "Public Corruption in the United States" at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., 1 January 16,2004. The report asserted that Mississippi wasthe most corrupt state in the country,evenmoresothan states with reputations for corruption includingLouisiana,Illinois, Rhode Island,and NewJersey.Theseconclusions were drawn from a report published by the federal governmentin 2002 that gave a compilation of all federal corruption convictions over the past decade and the 2002 population of each state. Authors of the report summed the total convictions for each state and used the 2002 populations to compute a "corruption rate"defined asthe total number of corruption convictionsfrom 1993 to 2002 per 100,000 residents. The ten most corrupt stateswere: 1. Mississippi - 7.48 2.North Dakota - 7.09 3. Louisiana- 7.05 4.Alaska - 6.06 5. Illinois - 5.26 6.Montana - 4.95 7. South Dakota - 4.86 8.Kentucky - 4.59 9. Florida - 4.58 10.NewYork -4.56 The report included three caveatsthat should bekept in mind whenoneconsidersthefindings .First,onlypubliccorruption convictionsthat resultedfrom federal prosecution wereincluded;about 80percentof publiccorruption cases are brought by federal officials. Second,eventhough public officials in a state might be corrupt, if federal prosecutors did not have the resources, courage, or political will to prosecute cases,theywere not reflected in the data. Third, much public corruption wasrevealedin 2003, but that year's informationwas not in the data set. Afourth caveatcould be added, which is that authorities might be more aggressive and competent in investigatingpublic corruption in some states than in others. In 2002,the Better GovernmentAssociation released a ranking of all fifty statesbased onthe relative strengthof lawsthat protectagainstcorruption and promoteintegrity in the operationsof stategovernment. The association analyzed laws concerning freedom of information, whistle-blowers,campaignfinance ,gifts, trips, and honoraria.Executive DirectorTerranceA.Norton said, "We chose those laws because they reflect three principles that are central to open and honest government—transparency, accountability, and limits." uo|pnp

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