OPEN GOVERNMENT — State Inspector General Laura Chick yesterday asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to expand his government
transparency Web site to include more internal audits of state and
local agencies, and to overhaul the Web site to make it more
user-friendly, notes
Matthew Yi in his politics blog for the San Francisco Chronicle. "The governor responded quickly, announcing an executive order that
requires state agencies and departments to post 'all program reviews,
monitoring and accountability reports, evaluations, inspections,
assessments and studies of audits' for public viewing on the
transparency site."
Schwarzenegger initially ordered state agencies to post all external
and internal audits, as well as government contracts totaling more than
$5,000 to be posted on www.reportingtransparency.ca.gov.
Chick said the intent of the governor's original order was clear, to
make government more transparent by posting online all kinds of
reports, reviews and audits. But she got significant amount of push
back from agencies, Chick said.
Chick accused many departments of having a culture of "resistance, sabotage and … denial."
So far, her office has discovered reviews and audits that found
local agencies allegedly not fully complying with federal rules,
exceeding limits on executive pay, and even potential fraud. Such
documents should be posted online, Chick said.The inspector general also criticized the Web site as not being user
friendly, adding "you have to be a bloody expert" to navigate the site.
Chick said in her mind, transparency should be defined as a "very
clean and easy access" find out how taxpayer dollars are spent.
