Kernan announces tougher ethics policies

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Joe Kernan announced several new state ethics policies Tuesday, including reporting requirements for those who lobby the executive branch, ethics training for all state workers and a chief investigator to oversee it all.\nKernan said Indiana residents deserve a state government that follows the highest ethical standards and that he and Lt. Gov. Kathy Davis were drawing some clear lines that would make a difference.\n"An organization, in order to be effective, must have the trust of its customers," Kernan said during a Statehouse news conference.\nRepublicans have accused Kernan and his predecessor, the late Gov. Frank O'Bannon, of running a lax administration marked by mismanagement and cases of alleged criminal wrongdoing in several agencies, including the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Family and Social Services Administration.\nAmong other things, four men, including a former FSSA manager, have been charged with scheming to set up a phony job-training program that cost the state $455,000.\nAt least 27 people, including four BMV employees accused of taking bribes, have been arrested since November in connection with a scam in which people used fake documents to get driver's licenses.\nKernan, a Democrat who is seeking a full term this year, said he would impose the new policies by executive order July 5, although some of the lobbying reporting requirements would take several months to become official as state rules.\nThey will require those who lobby the executive branch and state agencies to register and report their activities, similar to existing requirements for those who lobby the General Assembly.\nA new "chief investigator" post will be created, with that person developing and implementing ways to prevent fraud in state agencies. The official is to work for the governor's office and coordinate efforts with internal investigators in agencies.\nEllen Whitt, deputy campaign manager for Republican gubernatorial candidate Mitch Daniels, noted Daniels proposed many of the same ideas several weeks ago. And some of them would be more stringent, she said.\n"It's obvious to me that Mitch is already having a positive effect on the operation of state government before he gets elected," Whitt said.\nDaniels faces conservative activist Eric Miller in the May 4 primary, with the winner taking on Kernan in November.\nMiller said some steps Kernan was taking should have been put in place long ago. Kernan became governor in September when O'Bannon died of a stroke. He served as lieutenant governor under O'Bannon for nearly seven years prior to his death.\n"If things occurred that he thinks were wrong, he needs to admit that to the taxpayers, say they were wrong and change them," Miller said.