Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Website insufficiency produces Ethics Commission cover-up
by Larry Geller
It most certainly wasn't intentional, but by replacing Senator Hee’s original and possibly fraudulent personal disclosure statement with a fresh copy on the Hawaii Ethics Commission website, the Ethics Commission has, in effect, perpetrated a cover-up. A visitor to the website would not know about and cannot view a copy of Hee’s original submission.
Fortunately, Ian Lind retained a copy of the original filing. View it here. The amended filing, which is not marked as such or indicated as such b y the Ethics Commission, I discovered yesterday. It appears to have been faxed to the Ethics Commission on May 23. See also Ian’s post this morning, Senator Hee amends latest financial disclosure, questions remain (5/25/2011).
The procedural cover-up should not impede the Ethics Commission from taking action on the entire set of reports.
But will they?
Ian’s original article raised the question of justice. See: Politically powerful state senator files false ethics reports (5/21/2011).
If justice is to be meaningful, it should apply to every citizen equally, whether or not they are “politically powerful.”
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