Statewide Grand Jury Makes Anti-Corruption Recommendations in First Interim Report

The Office of Statewide Prosecution today released the first Interim Report of the 19th Statewide Grand Jury on Public Corruption. The report outlines legislative changes that are recommended to strengthen existing civil and criminal laws to combat public corruption in the State of Florida.

“The Cadets at our nation’s military academies swear an oath to neither lie, cheat, steal, nor tolerate those who do.  There is no reason we should hold our public officials to a lesser standard,” wrote the Statewide Grand Jury. “We hope our words are heard and our recommendations are followed.”

Key recommendations of the Statewide Grand Jury include:

-     Expanding the definition of public employees to include private

employees contracted by government entities that perform government services;

-     Creating sentencing enhancements for offenses committed by officials

who use their public position to facilitate their crimes;

-     Creating an independent State Office of Inspector General,

responsible for hiring and firing agency Inspectors General;

-     Expanding definition of criminal bid tampering to include bid-rigging

schemes; and

-     Authorizing the Ethics Commission to initiate investigations with a

supermajority vote of commission members.

The Grand Jury has been charged with investigating public corruption in Florida. The Grand Jury’s term is set to expire in February 2011. It has been presided over by Broward County Chief Judge Victor Tobin and supported by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

A copy of the report is available online at:

http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/JFAO-8CLT9A/$file/19thSWGJInterimReport.pdf

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