BIRMINGHAM - Governor Bob Riley will address corruption in government and outline his plan to fight it in a speech to the Birmingham Rotaract Club Tuesday, October 20 at the Harbert Center in Downtown Birmingham.

Government Accountability Reform will top the Governor’s legislative agenda for the upcoming Regular Session of the Alabama Legislature, which begins in January. Governor Riley said no other issue threatens Alabama’s future more than the continued, systematic corruption that has plagued state and local governments for decades.

“It seems like every time you pick up a newspaper or turn on the television you learn of another public official being investigated or convicted on corruption charges,” Governor Riley said. “A reputation for corruption can threaten our ability to attract businesses to Alabama and create jobs. We need to overhaul our Ethics Code to make state and local governments more transparent and accountable to the people.”

The recent placement of Alabama’s “checkbook” online has brought a new level of transparency to state government, but, Governor Riley said, Alabama still has a long way to go to achieving true accountability in government.

“Until we have full disclosure and everything is out in the open for the public to see, government will never be truly accountable,” he said. “Our plan makes both state and local governments more open, transparent and accountable than ever before. Our administration has been pushing these reforms since I came into office and every year the Democrat majority in the Legislature either stops them or ignores them. When the Democrats announced their agenda for the upcoming legislative session, they conspicuously left out ethics and accountability and said they didn’t believe Alabamians cared about it. How wrong they are.

“We have declared war on corruption in this state, and to win it, we must pass Government Accountability Reform.”

Governor Riley’s Government Accountability Reform package will:

• Require full disclosure of any gifts, meals, travel, tickets to sporting events, and other things of value provided by lobbyists to public servants and members of their family.

• Require lobbyists to fully disclose to the Ethics Commission any and all financial transactions between lobbyists and public servants and their family.

• Require lobbyists who lobby the executive branch for grants and contracts to register with the Ethics Commission.

• Require public servants and their household members to disclose to the Ethics Commission all jobs and consulting contracts they have with any business, nonprofit or other entity that receives public funds, and all household income derived from any state or local government entity or institution.

• Require the Ethics Commission to post on the Internet all lobbyists spending on public servants and their household members. The disclosures would be searchable on the Internet by the name of the public servant and the lobbyist.

• Finally give subpoena power to the Ethics Commission.

ADVISORY:

WHO: Governor Bob Riley

WHAT: Speech about fighting corruption in state and local governments by passing Government Accountability Reform WHEN: Tuesday, October 20 at 12 noon. Governor Riley will be available for additional comments immediately following the speech

WHERE: The Beason Room (3rd Floor) at the The Harbert Center, 2019 4th Ave N, Birmingham