The Office of Motor Vehicles will resume accepting some cash payments beginning December 5. OMV Commissioner Karen St. Germain says they will only accept small amounts of cash, for things like driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations.

“What we’re not going to go back to is cash for reinstatement of insurance cancellation issues, things that are a high volume of cash,” St. Germain said.

St. Germain says the OMV originally decided not to accept cash payments because it was a burden on employees if they came up short at the end of the day.

“We were trying to reign in all those things, be fiscally responsible, save about $400,000 a year, but the outcry from the public was there,” St. Germain said.

Several legislators did not like the “no cash” policy as they complained not everyone carries credit or debit cards. St. Germain says by only accepting cash payments for things like license renewals, they’re reducing the risk of employees pocketing the money.

“Those kinds of things are very trackable. When you’re talking about a reinstatement fee, you may be talking about four different transactions,” St. Germain said.

Legislative audits in 2014 and 2015 found $280,000 in stolen or misappropriated funds. Five workers were arrested.

 

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