Zoeller Promises To Seek Greater Authority to Go After Public Corruption

Can Linda Pence Say This About Corruption?

ZOELLER WILL SEEK ENHANCED PUBLIC CORRUPTION AUTHORITY

Priority to restore and retain public trust with transparency

(INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA) - Greg Zoeller, Republican candidate for Attorney General will seek additional authority for fighting public corruption by the Office of the Attorney General. “Fighting public corruption will be a priority in the Office of the Attorney General,” said Zoeller. “Our goal will be to provide greater public confidence in the handling of taxpayers’ money.”

Zoeller noted it is the statutory duty of the Attorney General to collect public funds following the certification of an audit by the State Board of Accounts (SBOA). During 2007 the SBOA certified over 50 audits to the Office of the Attorney General for collection. These include cases of theft and embezzlement of public funds by those entrusted with the responsibility over the money. Other cases involve poor record keeping and mismanagement of public accounts.

Zoeller said the Public Corruption Unit within the office would only handle those cases involving a breach of trust for personal gain and not cases involving accounting errors that required regular collections efforts. Under Zoeller’s proposal the Office of the Attorney General would seek additional authority:

(Read more after the leap)

1. to work directly with the State Board of Accounts, law enforcement and local prosecutors in initiating civil proceedings targeting the freezing of assets and forfeiture in cases where collection efforts were appropriate.

2. for a legislative review of the statutory requirements for bonds of certain public employees who regularly manage larger sums of money and seek other authority as may be required to aggressively combat public corruption.

3. to work with all levels of government in helping review and develop better and more transparent systems to prevent misuse and theft of taxpayers’ money.

“Maintaining the public’s trust in government is a goal worth extra efforts that I believe is important,” Zoeller said. “There has been an increase in the level of attention cases of public corruption have received since 2001, and I intend to dedicate additional attention to continue the efforts that have begun in this area to help restore public confidence.” Zoeller noted the civil Racketeering Influence of Corrupt Organization (RICO) case in Lake County, one of the largest public corruption cases in the state’s history, as an example of the increased attention from the office.

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