The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a New York City “pay-to-play” law against various constitutional challenges: Ognibene v. Parkes. The Pay to play law is in Local Law 34 and it: Lowers the caps applicable to campaign contributions from parties that have “business dealings” with New York City to $400 (otherwise [...]
Archive | Government Contracting RSS feed for this section
PCAOB is Fixed – May Take Other Agencies Down (or get Fixed)
In the Free Enterprise vs. PCAOB decision, the Supreme Court found that a double layer of limitation of firing for cause is unconstitutional. You can’t have an agency where the officers are only removable for cause under another federal agency whose members are only removable for cause. One level of protected tenure is acceptable, but [...]
School Official Disciplined for Misuse of LexisNexis
The Massachusetts State Ethics Commission fined Mark Rivera, the former Lawrence School Department Urban Affairs Liaison and Special Assistant to the School Superintendent, for misuse of his access rights to LexisNexis. The Lawrence School Department purchased access to the LexisNexis database so Rivera could obtain contact information for parents no longer living in the district, [...]
FINRA and Placement Agents
Will FINRA step in to prevent a ban on placement agents working with government investors? You may remember that last August, the SEC published a proposed rule that would create a prohibition on paying a third party, such as a placement agent, to solicit a government client on behalf of the investment adviser: IA-2910. The [...]
Who Said Government Ethics Wasn’t Funny?
You might think that the United States Office of Government Ethics would be overly serious and lack a sense of humor. You would be wrong. Check out the poem at the end of their Reminder about Holiday Gifts & Fundraising (.pdf) The holiday season – a time for good cheer! For egg nog, for parties, [...]
New Mexico Regulates the Use of Placement Agents
New Mexico, like New York and California is regulating the use of placement agents. The state has adopted the New York Model and banned any future investments with money managers who employ third-party placement agents. They have also instituted enhanced disclosure requirements. The New Mexico State Investment Council policy will preclude any investments being made [...]
California Regulates Use of Placement Agents
California has followed the lead of New York and started regulating the use of placement agents. California’s law requires placement agents to disclose contributions and gifts made to state and local pension and retirement board members, as well as information about the placement agent’s compensation, the services provided, and any lobbying or regulatory registrations. The [...]
Opportunities Exist to Improve DOD’s Oversight of Contractor Ethics Programs
The Government Accounting Office released a report on the compliance and ethics programs of 57 government contractors each with yearly contracts over $500 million: Defense Contracting Integrity: Opportunities Exist to Improve DOD’s Oversight of Contractor Ethics Programs The report’s survey was conducted in September 2008, before the new Federal Acquisition Regulations were put in place [...]
SIGTARP Quarterly Report
Congress was smart enough to not let loose the billions of TARP funds without some oversight. The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) was established by Section 121 of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act as amended by the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Act [...]
California’s Pay-to-Play Laws
California requires disclosure of gifts to officials at public agencies. The disclosure is made using Form 801 (.pdf). This form is for use by all state and local government agencies to disclose payments made to the agency when the payments provide a personal benefit to an official of the agency. Examples may include travel, meals [...]
Social Media
My social media policies database is available to you.
Affilate
This website uses the Canvas Wordpress theme from WooThemes. (affiliate link)
