Auditor Diana DiZoglio is heading down a treacherous political highway crammed with landmines and appears extra bent on getting revenge on her critics and the Legislature than producing any actual outcomes.
DiZoglio’s newest gambit – a plan to audit all non-disclosure agreements all through state authorities – might expose the state to large authorized damages and is unlikely to win a court docket problem.
DiZoglio herself was topic to an NDA when she was a legislative aide and fired from her job however now her aim to audit all NDAs in state authorities is overly formidable and doubtlessly harmful.
Do individuals who needed to signal NDAs really need lowly authorities bureaucrats to look into their private lives and doubtlessly resurrect embarrassing data that might harm their careers?
There isn’t any means the Legislature will cooperate along with her audits, assuring that she’ll lose and look ineffectual and overly political, losing thousands and thousands of {dollars} and producing no outcomes.
And if she goes to court docket she’ll in all probability lose.
DiZoglio has positively acquired Beacon Hill’s consideration, however possibly not in the best way she desires. She seems to be extra like a unfastened cannon politician than an efficient auditor.
Her wide-ranging plan to audit the MBTA and Massachusetts Convention Center Authority – reasonably than particular contracts or packages – seems to be extra like political grandstanding than anything and is greater than her comparatively small workplace can deal with.
There are definitely some large fats targets on the T that might use auditing, and that’s what DiZoglio ought to think about. But her auditors don’t have any experience on transportation security.
And there’s little doubt that non-disclosure agreements shouldn’t be utilized in state authorities, however is it actually sensible to dig them up now in an effort to attain political factors or precise some type of private vendetta?
“As a senator I was able to advocate for accountability around the abuse of those non-disclosure agreements and advocate for ending the use of taxpayer dollars to silence victims of harassment, discrimination, and abuse and protect powerful perpetrators like politicians who may be abusing in some way or their staff,” DiZoglio mentioned Wednesday on the Audrey Hall Show.
She mentioned all areas of state authorities, together with state businesses, the administration, the Legislature and even the auditor’s workplace have been all potential targets.
Sounds good, however life like? No.
DiZoglio’s predecessor, Suzanne Bump, concluded that auditing NDAs all through state authorities was “not feasible.”
Senate President Karen Spilka, who feuded with DiZoglio when she was a state senator, has reacted cooly to the auditor’s new pronouncements and potential audits.
Spilka has argued that the “separation of powers clause” prevents DiZoglio from digging into state Senate enterprise.
But now that she’s in a state workplace, DiZoglio is flexing her muscle mass at Spilka and others to problem their energy.
But reasonably than give attention to legit targets, like investigating the Legislature’s secretive methods, committee assignments and non-transparency, DiZoglio is performing extra like simply one other politician out for revenge.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”
