Ethics Newsline®

Items range from the indictment of Puerto Rico’s governor to the controversy over a new law in Oregon that requires extensive financial disclosure for volunteers on small-town planning boards

VARIOUS DATELINES
Ethics issues involving government were reported by news media on several continents last week. Among the stories:

• Puerto Rico’s governor, Anibal Acevedo Vila, last week was charged with 19 corruption counts stemming from a campaign finance scandal, the Agence France-Presse reports. He pleaded not guilty and was released without posting bail, according to CNN. Prosecutors allege that the governor and other codefendants accepted illegal and unreported contributions, funneled through false sources, to pay off campaign debts.
• An Indonesian court exonerated the nation’s former president, the late Haji Mohammed Suharto, and his heirs, of liability in a civil corruption case alleging that a charitable foundation run by Suharto had stolen state funds. The Jurist, an online journal from the University of Pittsburgh Law School, reports that the court ruled that the foundation’s board of directors, not Suharto, had been responsible for any misuse of funds. The court ordered the foundation to repay $110 million to the government.
• Nigeria’s anticorruption czar is about to lose his job, according to a report from ABC News. The impending sacking of Nuhu Ribadu, who has become popularly known as the Elliot Ness of Nigeria, comes in the midst of his investigation of the former Nigerian vice-president and several of the nation’s governors. Newly elected Nigerian president Umaru Yar’Adua already has removed Ribadu from office on a temporary basis by sending him on a yearlong training program. Ribadu has become well-known in Nigeria not only because of his relentless antigraft prosecutions, but also because he publicly blamed corruption for Nigeria’s troubled economy, reports ABC.
• Oregon State recently adopted a tough new ethics law, but small towns are finding their ranks of volunteers depleted because of its strict financial disclosure provisions. The Portland Oregonian reports that the latest venue for controversy is the small city of Maupin, where four of the seven members of the planning commission quit rather than submit a statement of their economic interests to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. Earlier this month, the entire planning commission for the city of Elgin resigned for the same reason. The Oregonian notes that the new law requires officeholders, even volunteers, to identify their sources of income, property holdings, certain types of debt, and investments. The mayor of Maupin said the new rules are a “slap in the face” to the integrity of volunteers.

Sources: AFP, Mar. 28 — CNN, Mar. 28 — Jurist, Mar. 28 — ABC, Mar. 28 — Portland Oregonian, Mar. 27.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Mar. 10 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 3 — Related Newsline story, Feb. 18 — Related Newsline story, Feb. 18 — Related Newsline story, Feb. 11.