AN ACT relating to operations within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

UNOFFICIAL COPY 26 RS BR 1959
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AN ACT relating to operations within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. 1
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky: 2
Section 1. KRS 199.430 is amended to read as follows: 3
(1) In the discharge of the duties imposed by KRS 199.420 to 199.670 the secretary or 4
his or her duly authorized representative may administer oaths and affirmations, 5
take depositions, certify official acts, and issue subpoenas to compel the attendance 6
of witnesses and production of books, papers, correspondence, memoranda and 7
other records considered necessary and relevant as evidence in connection with the 8
administration of the cabinet. Such subpoena shall be served in the same manner as 9
a subpoena issued out of a circuit court. Witnesses subpoenaed shall be allowed 10
mileage allowance according to KRS 421.015 for each day their attendance is 11
actually required at a hearing. 12
(2) No person shall be excused from attending and testifying or from producing books, 13
papers, correspondence, memoranda or other records in response to such subpoena 14
on the grounds that the evidence required of him or her may tend to incriminate 15
him or subject him to a penalty for forfeiture. No person shall be prosecuted or 16
subjected to any suit, penalty, or forfeiture on account of any transaction, matter, or 17
thing concerning which he or she or his or her agent or worker is compelled, after 18
having claimed pri vilege against self -incrimination, to give evidence, except that 19
such witness so testifying shall not be exempt from punishment for perjury. 20
(3) All letters, reports, communications, and other matters, written or oral, to the 21
cabinet or any of its agents, representatives, or employees, or to any board or 22
official functioning under KRS 199.420 to 199.670, which have been written, sent, 23
or made in connection with the requirements and administration of the cabinet shall 24
be absolutely privileged and shall not b e the subject matter or basis for any suit for 25
slander or libel in any court, but no person testifying before the secretary or his or 26
her duly authorized representative shall be exempt from punishment for perjury. 27
UNOFFICIAL COPY 26 RS BR 1959
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Information obtained shall not be published or be open for public inspection, except 1
to public employees in the performance of their duties, but any interested party at a 2
hearing before the secretary or his or her duly authorized representative shall be 3
supplied with information from such records to the extent necessary for the proper 4
presentation of his or her case. 5