W.Va. workforce agency brushing up on ethics

The 400 or so employees of West Virginia's workforce development program must review and sign an "ethics code of conduct" amid a conflict-of-interest investigation targeting one of its administrators, The Charleston Gazette reports.

Workforce West Virginia tells the newspaper that the recent distribution of the Ethics Act Code of Conduct for Public Employees is a reminder "of current policies that have been in effect for some time."

But the agency also acknowledges that the directive, and planned ethics training, follows "investigations into whether agency administrator Mary Jane Bowling improperly helped steer federal grant money that was ultimately used by her son, convicted Cross Lanes computer executive Martin Bowling."

The Gazette has reported extensively on the prosecution of the younger Bowling and the ensuing scrutiny of his mother's actions at the agency.