JCOPE Announces Settlements for Failure to File Financial Disclosure Statements

Yesterday, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) announced settlements with 17 state officers and employees who failed to file their annual financial disclosure statements.

Under Public Officers Law 73-a, state officers and employees who are designated as a policy-maker by their agency, or who make more than the SG-24 job rate (currently 90,200) are required to file a financial disclosure statement (FDS) with JCOPE. JCOPE reports that some 25,000 such reports are filed with it each year.

The 17 settlements entered into by JCOPE include fines ranging from $200 to $600, and cover the failure to file disclosure reports in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Personally, I don’t believe that financial disclosure statements are a particularly useful tool for ethics regulators. (As a friend once said to “No one has ever filed an FDS that says OUTSIDE INCOME RECEIVED: $10,000 bribe.) But others do see value in requiring such disclosure to be made. (And JCOPE, of course, doesn’t make the law – it just carries it out.)