STRONG TESTIMONY — PEF Region 8 Coordinator Lou Matrazzo testifies before an Assembly committee. Frank Mauro of the Fiscal Policy Institute also testified. — Photo by Sherry Halbrook
PEF pitches 'Go Public' bills to Assembly members
By DARCY WELLS
A state Assembly hearing on state procurement practices provided PEF with yet another opportunity to pitch its ‘Go Public’ accountability bills.
Region 8 Coordinator Lou Matrazzo testified before an Assembly Committee in Albany on September 27 urging lawmakers to support a bill requiring cost/benefit analysis (A.1259 and S.3923A) before contracting for services. PEF wants the Assembly to include the cost/benefit analysis bill as part of the Assembly's procurement reform legislation.
“This concept has the potential to save millions and improve the procurement of services,” Matrazzo said. “It’s simply good government. It doesn’t require the state agency to give the work to state employees, but it does require that the cost-benefit analysis be a part of the contract records reviewed by the state comptroller and that the analysis be available to the public.”
Matrazzo gave one example to the Assembly panel of a PEF member who was recently passed-over on a state project for an unqualified, higher paid contractor who then had to be trained for the position.
And he pointed out to the panel, if the cost-benefit analysis requirement had been in place last year, it could have saved the state Office of General Services $11 million in engineering and architectural expenses, as documented by a recent PEF study of OGS contracts.
PEF also has recently documented waste at the state Insurance Department.
“Private consultant accounting firms were paid as much as $400 an hour and an average of $215.42 an hour to audit insurance companies that the department’s state employees could audit at an average cost of $47.34 an hour," Matrazzo said. “That costs the state 455 percent more than state employees to do the same type of audits.”
PEF urged Assembly members to help persuade the governor to sign S.1920/A.6542 to require that state agencies disclose the cost and the number of their contract employees.
If the governor doesn't sign the legislation this year, PEF will try to have the bill’s provisions made part of any procurement reform bills passed by the Legislature next year.
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