The Louisiana Attorney General’s Office has saved the state about $30 million in the first 18 weeks of the Buddy Caldwell administration, his section chief of Government Relations said.

Caldwell was unable to attend the New Iberia Rotary Club meeting at noon Wednesday because testimony before a legislative committee.

In his stead was Malcolm Myer, the section chief for Government Relations for the attorney general’s office.

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Myer gave an overview of some of the services offered by the state’s top lawyer. One of the changes made by Caldwell, Myer said, was to change who was doing some of the work.

“Lots of money was being spent outside the office,” Myer said by contracting lawyers to perform some of the legal work for the attorney general’s office. “Now it’s done in-house.”

Those contracts cost the office about $30 million per year.

Myer said staff members also have improved the time that legal opinions from the office are returned.

Private residents of Louisiana cannot request legal opinions from the attorney general’s office, but elected officials, municipalities and parishes can.

“Opinions are up to date,” Myer said, who added that the timeliness is important because “each time an opinion is given, it affects someone’s life.”

Consumer protection services also were touted as important to the attorney general, especially programs that help investigate banking fraud. Identity theft, however, is of particular interest for the attorney general.

“Buddy Caldwell, during the campaign, had his wallet stolen and his identity compromised,” Myer said.

The attorney general’s office also will investigate other scams, but Myer said the responsibility for prosecuting falls to local district attorneys’ offices. He did not say how many cases of such scams the office has handled so far this year.

Other programs offered by the attorney general:

• Fugitive apprehension. Myer said oftentimes local law enforcement doesn’t have the resources to investigate these across parish lines, but the attorney general’s office can offer help. He said the office has helped arrest 13 fugitives so far.

•Medicaid fraud. Myer said so far $65 million has been returned from Medicaid fraud. He said the unit helps bring money to the state in two ways.

For every dollar the state spends addressing this kind of fraud, the federal government sends $3 for the service. And, Myer said, for every $1 spent by the unit, $20 is returned by halting the crime.

•The office has a group that addresses sexual predator crime by posing as minors on the Internet and catching predators.

Myer said the work is so stressful that the office has to rotate personnel. Local law enforcement agencies also participate in the arrest of sexual predators that are discovered by the unit.