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Is soliciting county vendors for donations ethical?
It seems that our
Human Resource Officer has been busy asking for donations for the
County Employee Christmas Party. Sources tell us that not only were
the County Commissioners asked to donate, but also some of the
county vendors and even the local banks. Is this ethical?
We refer to a
recent article in the AJC—
“Prisons
Chief Scolded over Fund-raising”,
November 30, 2005, Page B4
Georgia Attorney
General Thurbert Baker has advised the state’s prisons chief
to avoid the type
of
fund-raising that let to a GBI investigation earlier this year.
Department of Corrections employees raised more than $100,000 for an
Excellence in Corrections conference staged by Commissioner James
Donald in 2004. Most of the money came from vending companies
that hold multi-million dollar contracts to provide snack foods to
the state’s prisons. One of the vendors complained to Gov. Sonny
Perdue’s office that he felt obligated to donate…..
In Jasper County’s
case, did the vendors donate because they felt they had to to keep
getting business from the County? Why were they asked? Who
authorized this solicitation?
Is this ethical?
The BOC and/or the County Manager need to have more oversight into
what is really going on in the County offices.
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