Prairie State Wire

GOP gubernatorial hopeful, Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), concurs on the investigation being conducted on Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the former director of Illinois' Department of Public Health. 

Bailey is definite that Ezike violated the Illinois Ethics Act.

"Dr. Ezike was 'a steady, reassuring figure alongside Pritzker?' My colleagues and I did everything we could to get straight, direct answers to basic questions and all we got was vague, non-descript non-answers," Bailey said. "She was Illinois’ Tony Fauci. She absolutely should be investigated. The whole purpose of requiring a state official to wait a year before joining an organization with state contracts from the state agency those individuals oversaw is to prevent a quid pro quo. Perhaps she is adhering to the technical aspects of our ethics laws. We don’t know. But regardless of the technicalities, she is definitely violating the intent of the law. The public deserves the truth. Uncovering the truth of the Pritzker/Ezike propaganda machine will be central to our state healing from his tyrannical reign and will be a priority for my administration unlike opponents such as Richard Irvin. Heck, he would probably try to rehire her."

Bailey was ahead of the pack in fighting executive orders that led small businesses across the state to fail as the COVID-19 pandemic progressed. A complete return to normalcy is a high priority for Bailey as he promised to work to properly reopen the economy and our schools as well as to recruit new businesses and create jobs in Illinois, according to his website. 

Ezike is being investigated by the state ethics commission for accepting the CEO position of a medical nonprofit that is overseen and funded by the state agency she previously led. During the COVID-19 debacle, Gov. J.B. Pritzker paid Ezike $178,000 per year as his top health advisor. Her state-per-year state job contract was not renewed in March. She accepted a position as CEO of Sinai Health System a month later. The move is in violation of the Illinois Ethics Act, which requires department leaders like Ezike to wait a year before accepting jobs with organizations with which their agencies have contracts or are regulatory overseers. The Illinois Ethics Act imposes further restrictions on public officials, according to the Better Government Association.

The Illinois Ethics Act aims to eliminate undue influence in industries that bureaucrats formerly governed. The Illinois Office of the Executive Inspector General is now conducting an ethics inquiry against Ezike. Better Government Association reported that Ezike declined to speak about the situation. 

“Let me have your contact information and I can have them reach out to you,” Ezike told the BGA, which was in charge of the probe.

Ezike's reign at the Illinois Department of Health came to a halting end after her confirmation hearing was delayed and then canceled amid a lack of support. Bailey advocated against her nomination, West Cook News reported.