In the wake of recent Department of Transportation scandals, Gov. Jim Hunt has issued an executive order that strengthened the powers of the North Carolina Ethics Board.
The board, which oversees ethical issues for over 1,600 state employees, now has the ability to censure and even recommend the firing of individuals found to have violated ethical codes.
This new order was created in response to the scandals involving DOT so as to make the board "bigger, stronger, [and] more effective" in preventing ethical lapses among public officials, explained Barbara Thompson, the governor's press secretary.
As an example of such lapses, she mentioned the possible unethical behavior of several DOT board members who had voted on projects that may have lead to personal gain. Since then, two of the accused members have resigned.
Hunt's order shifts the role of the ethics board from that of a passive observer to one of an active participant in the conduct of state workers.
Instead of waiting for a complaint to arise before conducting an investigation, the board can now initiate inquiries.
Also, the order mandates ethical training sessions for state workers in order to prevent conflicts of interest from occurring.
As a third part of the order all state appointees and their spouses will have to fill out an extensive personal financial statement before taking state jobs. These statements will be made available to the public.
"Every public official, including members of boards and commissions, must uphold the highest level of ethical conduct," Hunt stated in a press release. To serve that end, the governor will appoint three permanent staff members to the board.
George Bason, the chairman of the ethics board, concurred with Hunt. "We now have the tools we need to ensure that there is proper oversight of ethical conduct and that members of the boards and commissions will know where a conflict may arise and how to avoid it," he said in a statement.
The order requires the board to actively train public officials so they can recognize an ethical violation. Mille Donavant, an assistant to Bason, explained that specific training tactics have yet to be determined, although she thinks training videos will be one of the components used.
Director of the Kenan Ethics Program Elizabeth Kiss said that these new changes are positive, calling the new order "a better way to make sure the state functions in an ethical manner."
She said she was pleased to see the training initiative and said that such "preventive ethics" would hopefully avert future conflicts of interest.
However, she explained that training, if handled poorly, can be counterproductive. Kiss maintained that preaching to workers was not effective. Instead, she advocated a more interactive form of training where employees can address issues that effect them in an open environment.
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