Veterans Aid Commission

OPINION 45-305 September 13, 1945 (OPINION) VETERANS AID COMMISSION RE: Compensation Copy of your letter dated September 5, addressed to Otto Krueger, state treasurer, has been received. From your letter, I note that the veterans' aid commission has appointed H.L. Turner, loan officer for the commission, and that you desire that checks signed by him be accepted by the state treasurer as though they had been signed by yourself as executive secretary of the veterans' aid commission. I note further that it is your desire that the state treasurer accept either your signature or Mr. Turner's signature to any checks issued by the veterans' aid commission. Under section 6 of chapter 237 of the 1945 Session Laws, setting up the department of veterans' affairs, the commissioner is authorized and empowered to establish within his department a claims division, a loan division, and a field division, and such other divisions as from time to time may be necessary to carry out the purposes of the act; to appoint such assistants as may be necessary and to prescribe rules and regulations of procedure. It seems to me that under the authority of this law, the executive secretary of the veterans' aid commission, who is also the veterans service commission, may establish such rules and regulations as are necessary to carry out the intent and purposes of the law. Accordingly, if Mr. Turner has been appointed loan officer and has been authorized by the commissioner to sign checks of the veterans' aid commission, that is within his power and authority as established by the law. I do not know whether the state treasurer will require filing of a signature, but it would perhaps be advisable to file the signature of Mr. Turner, as loan officer of the veterans' aid commission, with the state treasurer. It is, therefore, the opinion of this office that it is within the power of the commissioner to authorize Mr. Turner to sign checks on behalf of the veterans' aid commission, as indicated in your letter to the state treasurer. NELS. G. JOHNSON Attorney General