- • Support the Procurement Integrity Act
- • Support the Database of Deals
- • Establish meaningful Conflict of Interest laws
- • End off-budget contracts that circumvent normal procurement processes
New York has been engulfed by scandals driven by unscrupulous actors exploiting loopholes in the system to line their own pockets at the taxpayers’ expense. This was laid bare during the corruption trial of Joe Percoco, who joined former SUNY Polytechnic President Alain Kaloyeros and lobbyist Todd Howe to use non-profits to cut deals with taxpayer money that lined their own pockets.
This behavior must be stopped by strengthening the state’s transparency and rules over procurement – the process of purchasing goods and services. Providing sunlight to citizens while giving oversight power to the duly-elected State Comptroller, instead of Albany bureaucrats, is a step in the right direction. Setting ethical guidelines over conflicts of interest and abolishing the use of non-profits to sidestep transparency laws is an even broader solution.
By advancing the bi-partisan reforms in the Procurement Integrity Act and the Database of Deals, taxpayers can begin to regain faith in state government.