Board of Health policy designed to address potential conflict

The Arkansas Board of Health implemented a new policy preventing Dept. of Health Director Paul Halverson from signing contracts with UAMS. Halverson doubles as a professor in the UAMS College of Public Heatlh, which has caused concern to some as a potential conflict of interest. From the Democrat-Gazette article:

“If he’s going to be the director of the Department of Health, I think the Department of Health ought to write his check and pay his salary, and he should quit working for UAMS,” said Rep. Chris Thyer, D-Jonesboro.

Thyer said his concerns are about transparency in government, not with the job Halverson has been doing since he was hired in 2005. He said Halverson has done an “excellent job” and is a “credit to state government.” But he worries about having a UAMS employee leading the agency that regulates hospitals, including the UAMS hospital.

Click here for Click here for Ark. Code Ann. § 19-11-1004, which sets out the restrictions on contracts between state agencies and institutions of higher education (see subsections c, d).