NASHVILLE -- State lawmakers are exploring whether to fold the functions of the state Alcoholic Beverage Commission into the revenue or safety departments.
Senate Government Operations Committee Chairman Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said Monday that the ABC had "troublesome" repeat findings in a 2009 state comptroller's audit.
"We've been doing some background, 'idea search' in terms of should the ABC continue to exist as an independent agency," Sen. Watson said. "Should it be rolled under revenue? Should it be rolled under safety?"
Sen. Watson said those departments are under consideration because the ABC has both revenue and enforcement functions.
Since 1963, the ABC has regulated licensing of liquor and wine sales at the wholesale and retail levels as well as liquor by the drink at restaurants. The agency is up for a so-called "sunset" review by the General Assembly, in which lawmakers will decide whether to extend its life, let it go out of existence or reconstitute it.
Last week, the Senate voted to extend the agency another year. Sen. Watson said senators decided "the best course of action was to keep these guys going another year, allow us to look at this a little more closely and make a more informed decision about what to do with it."
He said he believes the House will follow suit.
Efforts to reach ABC Director Danielle Elks on Monday were unsuccessful. But in an interview Friday, she said "every issue has been resolved" that was raised in the comptroller's audit.
One audit finding said that, although the agency had made progress, it had not resolved completely problems segregating the receipt, deposit and reconciling of cash collections in its Nashville office "in spite of three cases of employee theft" before 2007.
Ms. Elks said the cash collection functions have "always been an issue for the agency, because we didn't have a sufficient number and variety of employees."
Another problem in the audit dealt with the commission having "failed to effectively or efficiently pursue unpaid fines from citations in a timely manner."
Ms. Elks said the agency has hired an additional attorney to address those fines.
Continue reading by following these links to related stories: