Critics want inspector general to release ‘Coingate’ report before election

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Critics are asking why Ohio’s government watchdog hasn’t yet released an investigative report on the investment scandal that engulfed Ohio in 2005.

With the presidential election only weeks away, the nonprofit government watchdog group Common Cause Ohio is asking Ohio Inspector General Randall Meyer to explain how the delay isn’t politically motivated.

Meyer was facing a threatened lawsuit by Common Cause when he pledged in February to complete the report left unissued by his predecessor who oversaw the investigation. The threatened legal action raised the possibility that the scandal dubbed “Coingate” could re-emerge as a campaign issue in the presidential battleground state.

Meyer’s spokesman says the inspector general recognizes the report’s importance but that a time table hadn’t been set for completing it.

Meyer was appointed in January 2011.