FOOD STAMP ABUSE TARGETED

Early next week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will announce the name of a Cape Girardeau convenience store accused of trafficking food stamps.

Craig Forman, regional public affairs director for the USDA's Denver office, said he couldn't release the name of the business or the details of the department's investigation until the business was notified.

He said that, while Cape Girardeau isn't a hotbed of food stamp fraud, Missouri is the worst state in the 10-state area served out of Denver, which also takes in Montana, Utah, Kansas, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Wyoming.

Because Missouri receives the most food stamps in the region -- 36 percent -- it has the most food stamp trafficking. The worst areas are Kansas City and St. Louis, but several Bollinger County businesses were cited for violations in 1992.

The punishment usually is suspension of food stamp privileges, and that source of income often means a lot to small business owners.

Big grocery store chains do the most food stamp business, but mom-and-pop operations are most often caught for trafficking.

Bigger retailers usually take pains to stay out of trouble, but smaller retailers get greedy, Forman said. They may take food stamps for non-food items like paper towels or diapers, or even worse, liquor or cigarettes.

Others may take stamps for cash, then redeem them at full face value.

"Word gets out and more and more people start coming to the store," Forman said. "We get a lot of tips."

Tips help the USDA's investigative branch immensely. Like most government agencies, there are too many problems for too few people, and it helps when the public gets involved.

Agents often go in undercover for a "buy," attempting to purchase liquor for food stamps or trade them for cash.

It's not enough for one employee to do it -- the store owner may say that employee was misinformed. But if two or three make the trade, the USDA has a case.

The punishment is disqualification from the program, either for a few months or permanently. If only one business in a town takes food stamps, it will be fined instead of disqualified so stamp recipients won't be hurt.

A new electronic system for dispersing benefits is being designed to help the department in its investigations.

First, stores that accept food stamps will receive scanning machines hooked up to a central computer. The scanners will read cards issued to food stamp recipients and debit their accounts for each purchase they make.

Currently, food stamps with various denominations are mailed to recipients.

While more creative merchants may find a way around the new system, Forham said, they will leave an electronic trail.

But most people who get food stamps and the retailers who take them are honest, according to Shirley Linley, a supervisor with Cape Girardeau County Division of Family Services.

About 5,500 county residents benefit from the program, which awards them an average of $65 each in food stamps a month. The county DFS administers the program and awarded $4.3 million in benefits last year.

Eligibility is based on gross income, assets, welfare already received, rent and utility payments and child care costs. DFS personnel feeds all the information into a computer, which tallies the results and pronounces someone eligible or ineligible.

Recipients have to reapply every three to 24 months to be sure they are still eligible, depending on their circumstances.

Linley said the division does all it can to be sure only truly needy people receive stamps.

"I'm sure there are people who get them and shouldn't," she said. "Most of our fraud is when people use them for liquor or drugs. Those are the things they don't have money to buy themselves."