Remember the short thread of discussion we had on lack of accountability in
Assam's revenue and spending related to the MLALAD? If you want an example of
what I had in mind for discussion, you will find it in the news below.
The state of Texas publishes every bit via a website -www.window.state.tx.us .
You can even find out who does business with the state. Anyway, I posted it
for general information. May be someone in Dispur or Delhi will notice it.
Dilip Deka
From the Houston Chronicle
Technology News
Oct. 15, 2007, 12:16PM
Eyeball the state's spending online
By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
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AUSTIN The online "window" to state government now allows viewers to climb
in and rummage through the checkbook.
Texas this month joined a handful of states and the federal government in
posting detailed financial information on the Internet. Anyone with strong
eyeballs and an investigative spirit now can search for pork or find out if
their neighbor's business sells widgets to the state.
The "Where The Money Goes" feature on the comptroller's Web site at
www.window.state.tx.us is the result of legislation by a group of
thirtysomething, tech-savvy lawmakers.
Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, a technology consultant who founded the first
company to register voters online, wrote the bill that required the online
database.
He modeled it after federal legislation passed last year. Texas joins Kansas,
Minnesota, Oklahoma, Hawaii and Missouri in setting up searchable spending
sites.
"It's really helpful for voters to be as educated as they can about how their
taxpayer dollars get allocated," Strama said. "It helps them see the enormous
difficulty of decisions that we have to make in the budgeting process."
Comptroller Susan Combs began planning for the portal when the legislation
was introduced early this year. She got the site up and running at a cost of
$310,000.
"During my first few days in office, I began the process of posting state
agencies' expenditures on our Web site," Combs said in a news release. "This
new window into state finances gives taxpayers an even more detailed look at
who gets their money and how much."
Takes patience, luckThe home page contains a pie chart with the basic
categories of the spending that ate up $74.5 billion in fiscal 2007.
A click takes the browser to a page that allows searches by agency, payee and
spending category. From the largest agencies and universities to the most
obscure, line-item spending for the past few fiscal years is available.
With a little patience and luck the search feature often freezes or gives
an error message the curious can find out how much the state spends on food
for prison inmates (nearly $81 million) or on lawyers for minors seeking
judicial approval to have an abortion without telling their parents ($452,895).
It also lists payments to tens of thousands of vendors, but only for the
first few weeks of the 2008 fiscal year, which began Sept. 1. The payees are
listed by first name, a strange twist that the comptroller's staff says was
required because of the need to list both business names and individuals.
The information can raise more questions that it answers. For example, why
was Accenture LLP, the outsourcing giant that agreed in March to end an $899
million contract to oversee social services enrollment, recently paid $19.4
million by the Health and Human Services Commission?
Providing a reality checkAn e-mail to Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for
HHSC, produced this answer: "Accenture isn't doing any work under the contract,
but we're still working out final arrangements to officially end the contract.
The payment you saw is for equipment computer equipment, phone systems,
furniture, etc. that Accenture purchased under the contract and is still
being used by state staff and other vendors. It's used for the services that
Accenture was handling, such as ... health plan enrollment, that we need to
continue without any disruption."
Limited government groups said the Web site could help their efforts to curb
spending.
"Twenty-three million sets of eyes can propose better ways, more efficient
ways to operate our government," said Michael Quinn Sullivan, president of
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.
Sullivan said the site will provide a reality check when state agencies say
they are running out of money. Last month the Texas Department of
Transportation said dwindling funds will force it to delay or scale back $965
million worth of road construction work.
"For folks who question that, they can go through and look at how the agency
is spending money, month in and month out," he said.
Although the outlays appear staggering, advocates for low-income Texans like
to remind the public that Texas ranks 50th in per capita spending.
"It sounds like a lot of money until you take into account how many people
there are and what the needs are, such as a young population needing to be
schooled and many who don't have insurance through their jobs," said Eva DeLuna
Castro, a senior budget analyst with the Center for Public Policy Priorities.
Castro added that all the numbers don't answer the key question of whether
the dollars got spent in a way that makes a difference in Texans' lives. She
said other publicly available information, such as student scores on
standardized exams, are more informative about how education dollars are being
spent.
But the information may help the average person understand that their state
taxes are not going to fund a bloated bureaucracy state employee salaries and
benefits totaled $13.8 billion in fiscal 2007 but to private businesses that
provide health care, vehicles, office supplies and highway designs, Castro said.
"It's not just money that kind of disappears into thin air," she said. "It
gets turned over to the private sector."
Likely to raise questionsAfter browsing the site shortly after its Oct. 1
debut, Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, said he expects it will be tweaked in the
coming months to be more user-friendly. Daily page views have ranged from 200
to 2,600.
Hegar, who sponsored the spending site bill in the Senate, said he often gets
questions from constituents about state spending, and plans to refer some to
the Web site.
"This may change the way we have a discussion," he said. "It will probably
raise a lot more questions, and that's a good thing."
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