Florida taxpayers -- in the comfort of their homes -- can now start to shift through more than 23,400 state contracts that make up more than 50 percent of the state’s budget and have long been inaccessible without the time-consuming public records request process.

And the move to provide more transparency could precede efforts by the state's top financial officer to push legislators to define what the contract process is, requiring contracts to be bid upon rather than simply awarded, and what they believe could remain shielded from public view.

Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater launched online the Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System (FACTS) on Wednesday, which is intended to become a centralized, statewide contract reporting website.

“I think it’s a really wonderful day for Floridians to know their government … is not afraid at all to show who got the work, what’s the timeline, what’s the amount, what’s the scope of work, what’s to be done, how it should be measured and if there are consequences for nondelivery,” Atwater said. “You can now go and look at that to see where it is getting done and where it is not getting done.”

Search for contracts on the FACTS site here.

Atwater said the addition of public eyes to each contract will help reduce deficiencies in contract details and potentially save money.

David Hart, Florida Chamber of Commerce executive director, called the website a “huge step” in providing government transparency that could stimulate competition.

“I’m thinking a business going online,” Hart said, “where they can go on and see a contract coming up next month and (say) ‘My business has an expertise in this and in fact I can do it for less and I’m going to bid on it.'"

Even with the massive number of contracts spit out to the public on Wednesday, Atwater admits a lot more remain out of the direct sunshine and his staff will be making recommendations to change that in the next legislative session.

While the FACTS site notes if a contract was awarded through the bidding process, there is no comparison with the other submissions.

Also, not every state agency has jumped on the FACTS bandwagon, including the Legislature, which approved the request for the FACTS system in 2011.

Atwater said that among the possible recommendations his agency might make in the fall for the 2013 legislative session, the establishment of guidelines for what contracts can remain classified is one of them; so is the requirement for the state to require contracts to be put out for bid.

“All agencies understood the law that was passed in ’11, and they understand that this is how we’re going to do business and the CFO is going to ask for that information,” Atwater said.

Currently, the majority of contracts listed as classified are in law enforcement and legal areas.

Florida TaxWatch projected that improving competition and reducing errors could save “hundreds of millions, if not billions” of dollars.

Dan Krassner, executive director of Integrity Florida -- a start-up nonprofit focused on statewide ethics reform, suggested the CFO provide links on the website to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, to expand the reach of the information.

“If they had a button where they could now email, post on Twitter, post on Facebook what they’ve seen in these contracts, imagine the watchdogs you’ll create all over Florida,” Krassner said.

Krassner said the site also needs to include the contracts of Enterprise Florida, Visit Florida and Citizens Property Insurance.

The website will also be helpful to his office, Atwater said, as historically the CFO’s office would receive an invoice for work performed at another agency and there would be no record of the contract.

The CFO’s office started using FACTS internally in March.

“Everyone hasn’t been as enthusiastic in the process about where we are today,” Atwater said. “There would be those who lobby who have clients who haven’t had to be that specific on the deliverable, that specific on the performance measure or that is the penalty for nonperformance.”

A contract becomes available to the public as soon as a state agency contract manager loads the contract information into the online system. Florida law requires state agencies to input contracts to FACTS within 30 days of execution.

 

Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.