Gov to critics of ethics test: Take it easy
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May 21--Gov. Deval Patrick heartily backed the state's new mandatory ethics test yesterday, boasting that he passed the simple-minded quiz while defending it as "a great start" on curbing the culture of corruption on Beacon Hill.
"It's very much like ethics programs that companies use, and it's not supposed to be a 'gotcha,' " Patrick told the Herald yesterday. "It's supposed to be a training tool."
Added a genial Patrick, "And if you're going to ask me how my score was, I passed."
Indeed, it is impossible to fail the State Ethics Commission's Online Training Program, the Herald reported yesterday. The 25-question online exam features such no-brainers as whether it's OK for politicians to flash their business cards to get out of a drunken-driving bust, and can a highway employee overseeing bids on a project accept free tickets to the New England Patriots from a prospective bidder.
Last year, Patrick, along with House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray, pushed through an ethics reform overhaul requiring all state workers to get ethics training -- but the Beacon Hill leaders failed to fund the program.
The online quiz was pulled off the shelf by the ethics commission to satisfy the bill's basic requirements.
The reforms came in the wake of a flurry of State House scandals, most notably former Speaker Salvatore DiMasi's federal indictment on influence-peddling charges.
Katie Carlin contributed to this report.
