[Adopted 3-21-1995]
The Drug Forfeiture Account is a fund established for the use of the District Attorney and administered by the Controller's Office. This account was created pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 6801 et seq. These sections provide that all drugs, paraphernalia, cash, property, property used to facilitate drug transactions, etc., shall be subject to forfeiture to the commonwealth and no property right shall exist in them.
The cash or proceeds of forfeited property transferred to the custody of the District Attorney shall be placed in the operating fund of the county, after which the appropriate county authority is to immediately release from the operating fund, without restriction, a like amount for the use of the District Attorney enforcing the provisions of the Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act.[1] The Act further provides that it shall be the responsibility of every county to provide, through the Controller, an annual audit of all forfeited property and proceeds obtained under this Article, which audit shall not be made public but shall be submitted to the Office of Attorney General. The Attorney General shall then submit a report to the Appropriations and Judiciary Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives giving an accounting of all proceeds derived from the sale of forfeited property and the use made of unsold forfeited property.
[1]
Editor's Note: See 35 P.S. § 780-101 et seq.
In consideration of the Controller establishing the Drug Forfeiture Account, the District Attorney has agreed to comply with county policy regarding purchases and expenditures. In light of the fact, however, that such expenditures are not a matter of public record, the Controller is not authorized to release any information regarding the account other than through its annual audit to the Attorney General. By statute, the expenditures pursuant to the account are at the complete discretion of the District Attorney, and the entity having budgetary control shall not anticipate future forfeitures or proceeds therefrom in adoption and approval of the budget for the District Attorney.