There are two kinds of corruption in our politics: hidden and revealed. Instances of corruption revealed are but the tiny tip of an iceberg.
If Connecticut’s one-party state could boast concerning its
political victims, it might say it has successfully managed over the years to
reduce revealed corruption by smothering it with a blanket of silence or,
failing that, by moving corruption into the hidden column.
There are numerous ways of implanting corruption, an effort
made much easier in an autocratic, one-party state. All one-party states are
either autocracies – think Stalin or Mao – or political plutocracies, both
systemically corrupt.
Democracy, as we misunderstand it here in the United States,
is the chief victim of one-party states. The tumbril on the way to a political
guillotine awaits all the beneficiaries of small “r” republican governance. If
the halls of governance contain only one dispositive party for any length of
time, corruption becomes irresistible.
Here is the State Republican Party caucus in the General Assembly inveighing against the one party
state:
In a press conference Thursday, Republicans
exposed the series of ethical lapses in the state that erode public trust,
calling for an expansion of the state's Inspector General (IG) role to
investigate this waste, fraud, and abuse.
Nixed audits, voter
and election fraud, reckless spending, state vehicle misuses, school
construction scandals, Medicaid fraud, phony grant allocation processes, and
more plague a system run entirely on one-party rule.
The authority of Connecticut’s Inspector General (IG)
currently is severely foreshortened. The state’s IG is authorized only to
investigate police authorities when they have discharged their firearms or when
an arrest has been questioned.
According to the state GOP press release:
Republicans say the
Inspector General should have broader investigative authority, ensuring that no
official—regardless of political affiliation or position—is shielded from
scrutiny. The proposed expanded responsibilities include:
• Expand Inspector General (“IG”)
responsibilities to investigate fraud, waste, and abuse in the expenditure or
use of state resources
• Review of Auditors’ reports on
Agencies and investigate findings of fraud, waste, and abuse
• Intake complaints, including from
whistleblowers
• Intake referrals from the Auditors
and state agencies
• Refer cases to state/federal
authorities
• Recommend policies to limit
fraud/waste
• Review/make recommendations on
legislation
• Submit reports to the General
Assembly annually starting in 2026
• Seek civil recovery of funds
In their press release, Republicans mentioned – by way of
example – only three recent ethical controversies that have bubbled up in news
reports:
• CSCU Spending Scandal: CSCU
President Terrence Cheng and other leaders faced scrutiny for reckless spending
while students endured tuition hikes and the system claimed funding shortages.
Cheng remains employed.
• DSS Audit Cancellation
(Diamantis/Ziogas case): Serious transparency and accountability concerns tied
to the case of Kosta Diamantis and former Democrat Rep. Christopher Ziogas and
questions involving an audit canceled on the watch of Former DSS Commissioner
and current OHS Commissioner Deidre Gifford.
• Social Equity Council Grants:
Questions remain concerning the fairness and transparency of grant allocations
to community organizations.
Under Republican auspices, all the above – and more – would
be grist for an independent IG mill., and the very presence of an independent
IG reviewing citizen complaints and recommending the proper disposition of
unethical/illegal acts by Connecticut’s largely Democrat controlled one party
state would be a deterrent to the natural autocratic inclinations of a ruling
party occasionally questioned by an occasionally independent state media.
By the way, a wide-awake state media should favor the
proposal of an independent IG that would induce among politicians a sense of
humility and shame. Such an office would lend heft to many stories that cover
only the tip of a mountainous floating political iceberg.
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