Section 31-8-31

Maintenance of permanent state pension roll; verification of applications, etc.

The Commissioner of the State Department of Human Resources, by correspondence with the Department of Defense in Washington, or investigation of the Confederate records on file in the state or elsewhere, shall obtain all necessary information to make the permanent pension roll complete, authentic and permanent as contemplated by this chapter, and the entering of names of pensioners on the permanent pension roll and the cancellation of names struck from the roll by reason of death or other legal cause, shall be under the supervision and direction of said commissioner, who shall, when any application is made for a pension, submit to the Department of Defense the facts of service set forth in such application for verification thereof, and the result of such inquiry shall be submitted by him, with the application of the pensioner, to the State Board of Human Resources. No application for a pension shall be finally denied, whether witness proof of the facts set forth therein as required by law is made or not, until such report has been obtained and submitted. The commissioner shall compare the pension warrants issued with payments made by the Treasurer, and examine the same as to their rightful delivery and payment, and he may request assistant examiners of accounts, in their assignments to any county, to make careful investigation of the pension roll of such county and the actual delivery and receipt of pensions, and under his direction there shall be prepared at the end of each month a list of all outstanding unpaid pension warrants, by number and name, and a report thereof shall be filed with the State Department of Human Resources.

(Acts 1920, No. 132, p. 168; Code 1923, §2939; Acts 1939, No. 483, p. 684; Code 1940, T. 60, §20.)