The writer of this recent opinion piece in the Bangor Daily News fails to acknowledge the detriments of poor ethics and incompetence.
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/06/01/opinion/attack-first-review-later/
I run a construction business. Within my bid price are labor expenses and material expenses. Although it can appear on my ledger as legitimate material expenses to over spend exorbitant materials when the job called for economy grade materials, it is still excessive and poor use of monies budgeted for that job. Likewise if I pay Master Carpenter wages to a man who has entry-level laborer knowledge of the trade, they are still labor expenses but they are poorly managed labor expenses. The difference is my business is private and my poor management means the demise of my business and nothing more. Maine Housing is a public tax-funded authority that must be spartan in its approach to the disbursement of funds that do not belong to them. It is the State Treasurer’s job to insure that those public funds are utilized that economize every penny and sees that it is used to its utmost potential. This is why those in the media, such as the Bangor Daily News, hate this State Treasurer so much. He does not subscribe to the prevailing notion amongst the media and bureaucracy that public funds are a ticket to posh and pleasure; but much the rather, he believes that these funds must targeted and economized to greatest furtherance of impact. Beyond the transcription of correctly compartmented entries on a ledger line, Poliquin firmly believes that these entries must show to the public funders of these agencies that their monies are being used with a frugal and concise understanding of what was the funds intended use. This boils down to an understanding of ethics and job performance. In this limited review of Maine Housing, what was abundantly clear is that Dale McCormick believed public service was a license for poor and squanderous management and a continued adherence to the old adage, “Its good enough for government work”. Bruce Poliquin believes that government works on a frugal targeted budget and believes all public servants should run a tight ship. The two divergent work ethics obviously cannot coexist.
