Prober speaks out on lapses of jails chief

DEPARTMENT OF Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters’ office may have uncovered ethical violations by jails boss Cynthia Brann — but he doesn’t have anything to say about her being promoted to the top job anyway.

“I don’t make personnel decisions,” Peters said Wednesday, after a City Council hearing. “You would need to ask City Hall about that.”

Like her predecessor, Joseph Ponte, Brann was found by officials to have misused her city car for personal business — driving it on trips to outlet malls and Kennedy Airport.

But despite being caught up in the very same scandal that dogged Ponte until he resigned, Brann was tapped to fill his shoes as the correction commissioner.

Ponte used his city car to drive to his home in Maine, and spent 90 days out of state in one year — while his department struggled to stem violence at Rikers Island.

Brann’s ethical lapses didn’t end with the car debacle — when it came time to pony up $6,000 to the Conflicts of Interest Board, she sent out a subordinate to get her a cashier’s check because her bank is located out of state.

The board “already pointed out that’s a violation of the ethics rules. Obviously I don’t think violating the ethics rules is appropriate,” Peters said.

He noted that Brann has taken an online ethics course, which he said is “a pretty good online training tool.”