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HARTFORD – A Shelton resident who served on a state entity paid a $2,500 fine for violating the state’s code of ethics.
According to a prepared statement from the Office of State Ethics, an investigation found probable cause that Robert Sember mixed his public position on the State Contracting Standards Board with his private employment.
Specifically, an investigation found that when the state Department of Administrative Services was trying to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) for Connecticut as COVID-19 spread through the state in March 2020, Sember was working for several private companies selling personal protective equipment.
Sember tried to connect the private companies selling the equipment to the state agency looking to buy the equipment, according to the consent order.
The State Contracting Standards Board, on which Sember served, has a powerful role over state contracting agencies, including state personnel.
Sember allegedly told an investigator that he was not aware of the section of the Code of Ethics that made it illegal to take such action. He noted he stopped when he became aware of the concerns, and did not intend to violate the Code of Ethics that is applied to him as a public official.
Sember used his position to assist at least one of the private businesses obtain a small or minority business enterprise certification from the Department of Administrative Services, according to the Office of State Ethics.
According to the consent order, Sember referenced his role on the State Contracting Standards Board in an email to state employees who were looking to buy PPE. He also served as the main contact between the Department of Administrative Services, the agency trying to buy PPE, and the private companies he worked for trying to sell PPE.
He advocated the state buy PPE from the private companies he worked for, and facilitated “introductions and direct communication between the private businesses and high-level DAS procurement personnel.”
The consent order does not name the private companies the state said Sember was working for.
“(Sember), by introducing himself and referencing himself to be an SCSB member in communications with DAS personnel in his representation of Private Businesses for which he was compensated financially, used his state position to obtain financial gain for himself,” the consent order, to which Sember agreed, reads.
Sember was paid $1,200 for consulting fees, according to a prepared statement from the Office of Ethics issued Tuesday.
“The private business did not obtain a state contract or make a financial gain as the result of Mr. Sember’s actions,” according to the statement.
Sember resigned from his position on the SCSB in May 2020.
In agreeing to the consent order with the Office of State Ethics, Sember waived his right to object and to conduct a formal hearing on the accusations. The consent order also notes that Sember had a lawyer during the investigation.
Sember signed the consent order July 12. A state ethics enforcement officer signed the order July 16.
