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Introduction
The life of the general public depends greatly on the way the country and state are governed. The changes on the upper levels are always noticed by people, as the way they manage their daily routine alters. That is why the population keeps an eye open for the actions of the politician’s conduct. Rather often, they are suspecting those who are at the helm in corruption, as belief this issue to be one of the most critical. Unfortunately, sometimes they have a point. Such things took place in Albany, NY.
Analysis
Not so long ago, two former federal authorities were convicted for the felony of political corruption. The government in NYS consists of rather powerful people, whose actions are always monitored. However, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver occurred to be deeply involved in unethical and illegal affairs. They were caught on corruption at the same time. It is interesting that they did not seem to have lots in common, regarding their work operations, as they represented Republicans and Democrats respectively. It is said that the first one is accused of being engaged in bribes and kickbacks that accounted for almost $5 million. Skelos, in his turn, is claimed to demand the working places and payments for his son who is known for having volatile behavior. The amount of money he got was more than $200,000 (Klepper 4).
On January 22, Silver was charged with “mail fraud, wire fraud, and extortion” but very soon the number of his charges increased (Hartmann and Fuller par. 4). During the trials, the sides proved their points of view and did not come to any agreement. The case of corruption was presented by the lawyer as a conflict of interest, which is a problem that can be hardly associated with the discussed one. Soon the Skelors trial took place. He underlined that all the actions that he conducted were managed to help his son. However, it was also reported that “Silver was a master of every form of deception, lying, keeping secrets, even splitting hairs” (Hartmann and Fuller par. 43). Despite the opposite ideas that were performed on the trial, Skelos and Silver were accused. Such a verdict proves that their operations made the population dissatisfied and disappointed, as they expected these people to cope with their duties better.
In the perspective of ethics, public administrators are expected to maintain good governance. In other words, they are to make such a decision that will be beneficial to the general public. Considering the actions conducted by Skelos and Silver, it can be concluded that they got engaged in the greatest wrongdoing that is faced by the contemporary world. Event the presence of the fact that these people were connected with it makes the public realize that they did not promote good government.
When discussing the problem, it should be mentioned that the act of corruption is known as “behavior which deviates from the formal duties of a public role because of private-regarding (personal, close family, private clique) pecuniary or status gains; or violates rules against the exercise of certain types of private-regarding influence” (Amundsen and Andrade 37). Unfortunately, today corruption is not something extraordinary, and this issue is familiar to the representatives of different countries, especially the post-communist ones. To some degree, their population is aware of the adverse situation, in which it occurred, and tries to implement positive changes in different ways. Still, in the case of NYS, people got tired of dealing with constantly repeated issues and the majority of them do not want to fight anymore. The abusive use of power by Skelos and Silver is a very important case of unethical behavior because it has an adverse effect on the economic and social development of the state.
The fact that both Ex-Speaker and Ex-Senate Leader denied their wrongdoings did not please the public (Post Editorial Board par. 4). On the contrary, they made many people treat them as individuals who are not able to take responsibility for their actions. Moreover, realizing that there is evidence of their guilt, they started to search for a loophole, which just worsened the situation.
The number of voters decreased greatly and cannot be compared with the amount that was seen several decades before. According to the information received when interviewing the population of the state, the general public does not trust politicians anymore, which might turn into revolts and problems with public control. The majority of individuals tend to become apathetic and do not care about the things happening in the political sphere anymore. Even though some of the lawmakers want to investigate the issue, find out what is wrong with the public ethics, and reform the current system as it failed and led to financial frauds, the population does not have any desire to support their attempts and promote further alterations.
These cases of corruption are considered to be critical because the fact that the politicians from different parties abuse their power and almost steal the money of the taxpayers takes up a question regarding the government’s ability to control the people who are working in the sphere and to bring advantages to the population. Of course, these issues are not the first ones, but they seem to be the last straw to break camel’s back. Skelos and Silver underlined that the things they conducted were made just because they cared about their nearest and dearest. But can it be a decent excuse? Fortunately, the members of the jury who were present during the trials get their idea across and made Skelos and Silver realize that “state government is not theirs to loot — no matter how big their sense of entitlement” (Lovett par. 13).
The cases of corruption influenced not only the current situation in the NYS but are also likely to affect the nearest future. The appearance of the fraud proves that the very system has a range of problems that are to be solved. Otherwise, the change of the Senate Majority Leader and Assembly Speaker will not bring any improvement and success. The state budget requires a decent analysis and negotiation. It will help the NYS to deepen into the issue and realize how serious the problem is. Moreover, a strategy of how to restore the budget and financial operations can be design and implemented. The ability of the members of the Assembly and Senate to question the designation of their leaders is also likely to be reconsidered. It is critical to have a well-organized guideline to monitor the performance of the leaders.
In this way, they will not be encouraged to engage in unethical activities because they will remember about the supervision and will not be questioned without any decent reasons. Thus, a part-time legislator should become a full-time one, as such an approach allows the NYS to think over the problems it has and take a look in the future when implementing them. Some people also believe that the Constitution will also require changes, as even though the attorneys failed to save the clients, they found some proofs of their actions to be legal regardless of being unethical. There should be no outside employment, as the citizens of NY will be more motivated to do their best for the enhancement of the situation in the state. The reform should also include free access to information about the disposition of finances. In this way, the representatives of the general public will be more encouraged to support the changes that the governors are willing to implement. The citizens will not suspect them of being engaged in frauds and will know to whom address the questions that occur (Lavine par. 17).
Conclusion
Taking everything mentioned into consideration, it can be concluded that the scandal that occurred because of the fact the Senate Majority Leader and Assembly Speaker turned out to be engaged in corruption made the general public rather disappointed in the government. The problem concerned also the overall issue of public ethics, as the convinced individuals did not accept their responsibility, and it is not enough to hire new people to occupy these positions. A range of reforms aimed at the improvement of the strategy should be made for the general public to realize that finances are monitored, and no issues occur.
Works Cited
Amundsen, Inge, and Vicente Andrade. Public Sector Ethics 2009. PDF file. Web.
Hartmann, Margaret, and Jaime Fuller. What You Missed in Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos’s Corruption Trials. 2015. Web.
Klepper, David. New York Lawmakers Slow to Address Corruption Despite Trials. 2015. Web.
Lavine, Charles. After Skelos and Silver, How to Save Albany. 2015. Web.
Lovett, Kenneth. Swift Convictions of Dean Skelos, Sheldon Silver Signal an End to ‘Business as Usual’ in Albany. 2015. Web.
Post Editorial Board. Silver & Skelos: New York’s Corruption-Trial Double Feature. 2015. Web.
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