For more than a century, the Independent Man has stood guard atop the State House. But if a bill submitted at the request of Operation Clean Government is signed into law, a flesh-and-blood independent man – or woman – may soon be watching what happens inside the capitol.
The bill would create the office of inspector general, an independent agency in state government charged with detecting fraud, abuse and mismanagement. Nineteen other states, including Massachusetts, have a similar office.
While other authorities – such as the attorney general and the U.S. attorney – focus their attention on criminal matters, the inspector general would also be able to look into issues such as fraud that don’t rise to the threshold for prosecution, said Operation Clean Government President Arthur “Chuck” Barton.
The office would also have subpoena power. Its work would focus solely on elected and appointed officials.
The inspector general would be chosen by a vote of at least two of three top state office-holders – the governor, the attorney general and the general treasurer – and would serve a five-year term with no opportunity for reappointment, Barton said. The idea is to create a position that is not beholden to any political alliances, he said.
“This is a chance to have somebody go after those issues independent of the status quo,” Barton said.
Aside from the issue of fraud or mismanagement that doesn’t rise to the status of criminal wrongdoing, chief bill sponsor Sen. Leonidas P. “Lou” Raptakis, D-Coventry, said an inspector general is needed because the state attorney general and the U.S. attorney’s offices have many other duties beside serving as government watchdogs.
And Raptakis noted that the position of attorney general is an elected one in Rhode Island, meaning that there could be political influence of any decisions related to prosecuting government officials.
“You never know where an allegiance may fall,” Raptakis said. “I’m not criticizing the current attorney general [Patrick C. Lynch], but you never know. … The inspector general is more of an independent administrative individual.”
Although Raptakis said it may be difficult to get the office established in a year during which the state is facing a record deficit, Barton said other states have been able to realize savings from the monitoring of mismanagement and waste of public funds, whether federal, state or local.
“The cost of the program will be more than offset by the savings realized by the exposure of money being misspent,” he said.
Operation Clean Government’s push for the office comes against the backdrop of ongoing investigations into state government. The most high-profile among those investigations is “Operation Dollar Bill,” a probe by U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente’s office that has focused its attention on past and present legislators and the corporations that may have bribed them to promote their agendas.
So far, the investigation has yielded three convictions – former state Sen. John A. Celona, former Roger Williams Medical Center President and CEO Robert A. Urciuoli and Vice President Frances P. Driscoll – and the indictment of two top executives at the CVS Corp. It has been widely reported that the investigation is looking at other legislators and companies.
“The investigation is continuing and it is active,” said Thomas Connell, a spokesman for Corrente’s office, declining to comment further.
Aside from the criminal investigations coming out on the federal level, several legislators, including Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano, D-North Providence, are embroiled in ethics disputes. The R.I. Ethics Commission voted this month to move forward with the investigation over Montalbano’s work for the Town of West Warwick while legislation regarding the ill-fated Narragansett Indian Tribe casino was before the General Assembly.
With the office of inspector general, Raptakis said, he hopes to reduce the volume of improprieties and allegations of improprieties that have plagued state government. “It leaves a bad taste.”
