Cline seeks to rein in illegal workers, DGIF spending[/align]By Ray Reed[/align][email protected][/align]Monday, January 21, 2008[/align]

RICHMOND - Del. Ben Cline wants to tighten restrictions on hiring illegal workers, and he also wants the state to put a microscope on money handled by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
The illegal-workers bill results from perceptions of unfair business competition, Cline said, and the Game and Inland Fisheries bills grew out of spending habits that have resulted in indictments of three top officials in DGIF.
Two bills that Cline, R-Rockbridge, is proposing in the General Assembly this year were inspired by an attorney general’s investigation of reports by the state auditor that Game and Fisheries officials bought expensive shotguns, went on an African safari with $11,000 in hunting gear purchased on a state credit card, and otherwise used department funds in ways that led to criminal indictments. The money was later repaid.
Still, Cline said, he and the attorney general agree that kind of thing shouldn’t happen again.
“There are a lot of sportsmen in my district who are concerned about mismanagement of DGIF resources that were funded by their license fees,” Cline said.
“We need to not only shed some sunlight on DGIF operations, we also need to improve our embezzlement statutes to prevent that kind of activity,” Cline said.
One of his bills would require the DGIF’s director to submit a quarterly accounting of the expenses he controls to the governor’s Secretary of Natural Resources, and also execute a security bond based on performance of his duties.
Another of Cline’s DGIF-related bills would classify as embezzlement any misuse or misappropriation of public assets, such as the gear purchased on the state credit card, he said.
The illegal-workers bill has bipartisan support, Cline said, with Sen. Charles Colgan, D-Manassas, backing the measure in the Senate.
“It’s one of the few
immigration bills that might get out” of the legislature and into the governor’s office for a signature that would make it law, Cline said.
The bill would require public contractors and subcontractors to use a federal electronic work verification program to certify their employees are legally eligible for employment in the United States.
In his district, Cline said, “I’ve seen lawn mowing companies who are consistently underbid for state contracts by companies that they believe are hiring a significant number of illegal workers.”
Cline said he’s “working with the business community to make sure it’s not imposing an unacceptable burden” by requiring employers to make costly and time-consuming background checks on
workers.

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