A new report measuring states on the strength of their laws on public corruption and government openness ranks Georgia last in the nation, a grade state officials dismissed as a biased hit job.
The report, released today, scored states on 330 “corruption risk indicators” including open records law, campaign finance rules, and auditing and budgeting procedures. Georgia received an overall grade of 49 out of 100, an F.
The study was conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity, two Washington-based nonprofits that champion government reform, and Public Radio International, using journalists and academics from across the nation to compile the data. Representatives for the groups said it is the most thorough and wide-ranging study ever done on government accountability.
Georgia officials, who based on previous reports said they were surprised the state did so poorly, questioned the criteria used and the man selected to conduct the initial audit.
The report awarded no A’s, but most states passed the exam. New Jersey received the highest grade.
Officials with the CPI and Global Integrity said New Jersey’s ranking might seem “counterintuitive,” given the state’s history of public corruption cases. CPI Executive Director Bill Buzenberg said public scandals often prompt state legislatures to pass the toughest ethics laws, which is what the report attempts to grade.
“We’re not measuring actual corruption,” said Caitlin Ginley, the project manager for the report. “This is a look at the opposite: the laws, policies and procedures in place to prevent corruption and how effective they are.”
Georgia scored at or near the bottom in a number of categories in the study, including conflict-of-interest laws for civil servants, enforcement of ethics rules and government procurement laws.
House Ethics Committee Chairman Joe Wilkinson, R-Sandy Springs, said the report blindsided him, and he criticized the choice of author for Georgia’s report card. Jim Walls, a former Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor and owner of the website Atlanta Unfiltered, gathered, wrote and provided an initial score on the information on Georgia for the report.
“To have Georgia’s laws judged by a blogger instead of a regulatory official, as has been done in the past, is of great concern,” he said. “Based on previous discussions with the Center for Public Integrity, we were under the assumption that the 2012 rankings would show Georgia in the top five states.”
A prior CPI study on financial disclosure rules for state legislators ranked Georgia seventh in the nation. Wilkinson has trumpeted the ranking in recent months in rebuttal of calls for tougher ethics laws.
Wilkinson said he plans to ask the CPI to do a new audit on Georgia’s laws with another author.
“We have worked very closely with CPI over the years, followed their advice,” he said. “The problem is not CPI. The problem is that it was Jim Walls.”
CPI spokesman Randy Barrett said the organizations stand behind the report.
“The state has a multitude of weaknesses, not the least of which is the lack of an ethics commission with powers to broadly enforce state ethics laws, including conflicts of interest and nepotism,” he said. “Georgia ranks last in the investigation for a reason: The public trust is not being adequately protected.”
Walls said every one of the questions he was asked to address in the study was backed by news articles, government documents and interviews conducted over several months. He said his work was heavily fact-checked and edited for several more months leading up to today’s release.
“There were two or three layers of proofreading and peer review, and we’d go back and forth on some things,” he said. “Sometimes they would say, ‘We think this deserves a higher score or a lower score.’”
Rick Thompson, a former executive director of the State Ethics Commission, called the report biased and disappointing.
“All you have to do is read some of these opinions and how they’re answered to see there’s a whole lot of room to inject your opinion in,” he said. “The reports CPI used to do were campaign finance, disclosure and lobbying. This one seems to be more how does the government work in the view of a reporter.”
Of particular concern to Thompson were areas in which the report graded the state on how well laws worked “in practice.” Georgia scored low on many of those questions.
Officials behind the report said all the state report cards were fact-checked by another expert whose identity was kept from the original author. Global Integrity Executive Director Nathaniel Heller said Georgia officials who criticized the report last week had not seen the sources used to determine the state’s failing grade. Those details are scheduled to be released today with the report.
“These are essential, especially in the context of ‘in practice’ indicators, and may change their reaction,” he said.
William Perry, executive director for Common Cause Georgia, said he had seen a preliminary scorecard and found it “pretty accurate.”
“I think that some of the scoring is kind of generous,” he said. “I think this is true measurement of the law that the Legislature has been touting for the last two years.”
Common Cause is part of a coalition of groups advocating for tougher ethics laws, including a cap on lobbyists’ gifts to legislators.
Chuck Gabriel, an Atlanta attorney and former public corruption investigator for the FBI, said there is no doubt that the state’s ethics laws can be strengthened, but this report “misses the mark” by judging the state too harshly based solely on transparency laws. Criminal convictions are what really stops corruption, he said. Georgia has a pretty good track record when measured that way, he said.
“The conviction of dirty cops, corrupt legislators, unscrupulous business persons and political hacks is the true deterrent to corrupt behavior,” he said, “and those criteria ... ought to be the basis for grading this state.”
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