An Honor System That Didn't Work
<a href="http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20100303_Report__S__Jersey_auth…; target="”_blank”">An
article
in yesterday's Philadelphia <i>Inquirer</i></a> says that the state's
inspector general has found that, despite past problems, the <a href="http://www.sjta.com/sjta/index.asp" target="”_blank”">South Jersey Transportation
Authority</a> has gotten its act together, ethically speaking. But go
to <a href="http://www.sjta.com/sjta/news.asp?publicationID=27" target="”_blank”">the
authority's News Clip page</a>, and all it says is "Nothing to Report."
After all, a <a href="http://www.state.nj.us/oig/pdf/report-3-2-2010.pdf" target="”_blank”">103-page
inspector general's report</a> detailing the authority's ethical
misconduct isn't worth reporting, is it? It's a professionally designed
website, but there appears to be nothing about ethics or compliance, and no search
line to find it.<br>
<br>
Also, the ethics officer is still in office, despite her own ethical
problems ("significant failure ... to properly discharge her duties"
according to the IG's report, p. 71). For example, she did not enforce
the disclosure requirements regarding outside activities. According to
the report, "the former Executive Director and other management staff
failed to disclose their own outside activities, some of which were
elected political office positions in municipal and county
governments." (p. 71-72)<br>
<br>
How did this happen? Because, as the ethics officer told the IG, "she
allowed compliance with the Conflicts of Interest Law and State ethics
rules and requirements to be based on the honor system." (p. 74) The IG
report shows what happens when ethics officers depend on an honor
system. No better argument need be made for independent enforcement of
ethics codes than what happens when officials are allowed to follow an
honor system.<br>
<br>
One nice thing about the authority's ethics program is that there is an
alternate ethics officer who can deal with the ethics officer's own
compliance with ethics laws. This allowed the ethics officer to ask for
permission to act as treasurer in the re-election campaign of a council
member. And the request was approved even though participation in a
campaign is, according to the IG report, prohibited by the state
conflicts of interest law. Nice.<br>
<br>
And the ethics officer's spouse, also an employee of the authority (a
conflict there?), did not disclose his outside activity for some time,
and when he did, the ethics officer approved it (clearly a conflict).<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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