§ 9-4-104 — Withholding salary in case of embezzlement of public funds or failure to pay over fees

If any officer of the state, or of any county or municipal
corporation therein, having the custody of public funds,
embezzles the funds, or if any public officer whose duty it is
to pay into the treasury of the state, county or municipal
corporation, any fees collected by him, fails at the times
required by law to pay over the fees into the proper public
treasury, the officer whose duty it is to audit and allow claims
for salary of any officer or to issue a warrant in payment of
the salary, may withhold the salary due to the officer, until
the embezzlement, if any, is satisfied, or until the fees
unlawfully retained by the officer are properly turned over and
paid into the proper public treasury. If the director of the
state department of audit determines that any embezzlement
exists, or that any fees have been improperly retained by any
public officer, the auditing officer or board shall withhold the
person's salary until embezzlement is satisfied, or the fees are
turned into the proper public treasury, or a court of competent
jurisdiction arrives at a different conclusion from that of the
director and decrees that no embezzlement or failure to pay over
fees existed.