« Ind. Decisions - "The situation has become absurd enough that it might have been amusing if not for the judicial resources that have been required to resolve it" | Main | Ind. Law - Last Week in Review at the Indiana General Assembly »

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Ind. Gov't. - See every governmental expenditure of over $100 online?

State contracts. When Gov. Daniels came into office, he said he would put state contracts online for everyone to see. And indeed he did, simply by issuing an executive order. Initially what was made available was a long, hard to navigate list of all active contracts, albeit with links to the actual contract document. Post July 1, 2006, however, the accessibility was refined, making access simpler.

Concerns. "Active" contract seems to be a key phrase, the ILB is not sure that access to contract documents that have concluded or expired during the Daniels' administration remains available. It should be. Also, a plan should be in place to archive this information online into the future. Every administration should not do it differently, or not at all.

Expenditures. Historical "actual expenditures" of state agencies may be found in the State Budget Agency "as-submitted" budgets for past years.

Concerns. This information is not particularly timely and is not broken down in sufficient detail in these reports. Detailed information does exist, but is not online.

State salaries. In Indiana the salary of every state employee is now available online.

Concerns. Unfortunately, it has not been the State of Indiana that has posted this information online. It has been the Indianapolis Star that has stepped up to fill the void.

State and local expenditures. Gov. Daniels made his announcement about contract accessibility four years ago. Since that time, some other states have initiated efforts to assure greater governmental financial transparency. Their goal has been to make not only every contract, but a record of every state expenditure of over $100 available online.

And, after reading this eye-opening article today by Peter Schnitzler of the Indianapolis Business Journal, many of us may be crying out for such transparency for both state and local governmental units, down to the level of the local township trustee's office.

What are other states doing?

Alaska - From the story "State Checkbook Goes Online" dated 2/6/08:

JUNEAU — Want to know how much the Department of Transportation spent on guardrails from AAA Fence Co. last year? How much the Department of Revenue paid Gaffney, Cline and Associates for help with oil and gas issues? Or how much your local lawmaker billed the state for travel expenses?

Now you can. Easily.

Gov. Sarah Palin announced Tuesday she was putting all the state’s expenses online. She said about a dozen other states are already doing it and added that she got hooked on the idea after talking with other governors at the National Governors Association annual meeting.

“Alaskans deserve open, transparent government,” she said at a news conference.

All of the information posted online is public information. The goal of posting it online is to make the information much more accessible to the general public.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, is sponsoring a bill that would require the state to post its expenses. His office said Tuesday he would keep pushing the bill, SB 201, to make sure the online service continued beyond Palin’s time in office.

For now, Palin’s site includes information for every payee that received more than $1,000, including the name and location of the company and what the payment was for. It doesn’t have employee salaries or certain information where confidentiality could be an issue, such as heating assistance or unemployment payments.

The information is organized by department, payee, and type of expense in searchable spreadsheets, each of which fills hundreds of pages.

Department of Administration Commissioner Annette Kreitzer described the site as a work in progress and said the state is still looking at ways to deal with employee salaries and confidential information.

“It’s not perfect ... but we wanted to get something out there to get started,” she said.

Here is the new State of Alaska Online Checkbook.

Nebraska. Nebraska's site, NebraskaSpending.com, is hosted by its state treasurer. Right offhand, I don't find the site to be user friendly and do not see payee information. According to this release, it is a website "in the works."

South Carolina - Gov. Sanford issued an Executive Order on Governmental Spending Transparency on Aug. 30, 2007 mandating the reporting online of state expenditures in detail (see the Order). The information is required to be online no later than March 1, 2008 for expenditures already incurred in the 2007-2008 fiscal year. (As of this writing, no information is yet available online.)

Show Me the Spending is the website of a coalition dedicated to transparency in state government spending. Access it here.

In Sum. Although much heralded, the ILB has found other states' efforts to be a disappointment so far.

Indiana is in a position to put a system in place to lead this effort, as it now leads the effort to bring transparency to state contract information.

Transparency in Indiana government spending may be accomplished via executive order, or by legislation. One caveat about the executive order route is the need for the permanence of these new databases down the line, when administrations change.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 9, 2008 03:17 PM
Posted to Indiana Government