Governor Pataki, once again, the bill’s in your court.Sign the Contract Disclosure Bill
Battle for accountability legislation heats up again
By SHERRY HALBROOK
The state Legislature has, once again, passed the Contract Disclosure Bill and
sent it to the governor for his signature.
“This legislation, which would require state agencies to report how many private
consultants and contractors work for them and how much it costs, goes to the
very heart of what our Go Public Campaign for greater public accountability is
about,” said PEF President Roger Benson.
“Last year, this bill was passed unanimously by both the state Assembly and the
Senate, but the governor vetoed it — saying it would be too much trouble to
gather and report that information. So, we worked with the legislators to
address that concern.”
The legislation also has had vigorous support from the editorial boards of the
Albany Times Union, the Schenectady Daily Gazette, and the Rochester Democrat &
Chronicle, which called on the Legislature to override a veto.
This bill is necessary because study after study has shown that hundreds of
millions of tax dollars are wasted annually through misguided contracting out of
routine state services. Taxpayers should have the right to know whether or not
that money is being wisely spent, but, since the state does not track or publish
this information, they have no way to determine how their tax dollars are spent
on contracts for consultant services.
The bill would simply require state agencies to report information their
consultants already provide to them.
An article on page 3 of this magazine details how the use of private consultants
by two state agencies for information technology projects has wasted millions of
tax dollars.
While you can find such examples under almost any rock in state government, it
involves some very heavy lifting.
It took PEF more than one year to request, receive, compile and analyze the data
necessary to make these comparisons just at the state Department of Taxation and
Finance. It took six separate requests for PEF to receive the information it
originally requested in November 2004. Even then, the state withheld some key
information.
“Taxpayers should not need budget and contract analysis skills and work for more
than a year to determine how much the state Department of Taxation and Finance
spent on information technology consultants and how many consultants it
employed,” Benson said.
The Communicator April 2006
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