Ex-Official Violated Child Support Rules

Legislative auditors have concluded that former state Treasurer Lydia Justice Edwards violated federal regulations when she told absent parents to make future child support payments directly to her office by electronic funds transfer.

But Ron Crane, who took over as state treasurer in January when Edwards retired after three terms, told Auditor Gene Sparks that he had quickly discontinued his predecessor’s questionable policy.

The criticism of the former treasurer’s intrusion into the child support collection system was prompted by Edwards’ repeated attacks on the Health and Welfare Department for what she maintained were slow payments by absent parents and too many bounced checks.

But the auditors pointed out that she apparently illegally used information from child support payment checks to track down absent parents and then direct them to make their payments directly to her office.

Edwards has been hiking the Appalachian Trail since March.