DOT to close doors on ex-employees for a year
The state’s roads agency needs to shut down the revolving door that sees state workers leave the Transportation Department and almost immediately start lobbying the state agency, an agency official told a S.C. House panel Tuesday.
Former state roads workers have shown up at Transportation Department commission meetings within weeks of quitting their state job, said Paul Townes, the agency’s chief internal auditor.
“The ability to restrict somebody from participating in a project for a year after they leave (the Transportation Department) has always been an issue,” Townes told a subcommittee of the new House Oversight Committee.
In order to combat complaints about the appearance of impropriety and favoritism in awarding roads contracts, the Transportation Department soon will enact a policy change, acting Transportation Secretary Christy Hall told the House panel Tuesday.
The change will bar former Transportation Department employees from working on state contracts awarded to their new employers for one year after leaving the state agency, she said. “What we’re trying to do is to contractually strengthen the existing ethics requirements so that there is a clear line in the sand,” Hall said.
What we’re trying to do is to contractually strengthen the existing ethics requirements so that there is a clear line in the sand.
Acting Transportation secretary Christy Hall
How the Transportation Department operates is being scrutinized as lawmakers grapple with how to pay to repair the state’s crumbling roads and bridges.
A plan to raise money for road repairs — by increasing the state’s 16.75 cent-a-gallon gas tax by 10 cents and the state sales tax on vehicles to $500 — the S.C. House last year. But that plan died in the state Senate. Senators are set to take up the proposal in January, when they return for the last year of their two-year session.
Phyllis Henderson, R-Greenville, said a one-year ban on former state employees working on new Transportation Department contracts is a step in the right direction.
She added legislators adhere to similar rules that prohibit them from becoming a lobbyist for a year after they leave the Legislature. (However, critics say legislators have skirted that rule, too.)
The Transportation Department also should have access to more contractors so that a handful of businesses do not get all the agency’s business, said state Rep. Ralph Norman, R-York.
Now, South Carolina has a couple of regions where there is only one asphalt vendor to bid on projects, Hall said.
The General Assembly could pass a proposal next year to increase funding of the Transportation Department to pay for road repairs, Norman said. That should bring in more Georgia and North Carolina businesses to compete with S.C. businesses, he said.
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Clash at DOT?
The S.C. Department of Transportation’s chief internal auditor criticized his own agency and its commission Tuesday.
Paul Townes said his ability to conduct audits has been restricted. He also said the commission that oversees the Transportation Department sees itself as an advocate for the agency, not an overseer of its work.
Commission vice chairman Mike Wooten said commissioners think the agency’s internal auditor should be more focused on finding efficiencies than being a cop. Allegations of fraud need to be sent to the state inspector general, State Law Enforcement Division or another legal entity to investigate, Wooten said, adding there is a philosophical difference between the commission and Townes.
Transportation Department chairman Jim Rozier agreed. “We’ve got to decide whether we work for the internal auditor or the internal auditor works for us.”
This story was originally published August 11, 2015 at 6:16 PM with the headline "DOT to close doors on ex-employees for a year."