Looking up state expenses soon will be as simple as clicking onto the Internet.
The Office of State Finance is in the final stages of developing a Web site that will allow people to view how state money is spent.
Advertisement
Visitors to the site will be able to look up the state's payroll for every agency in the state and see what individual state employees are paid, from entry-level positions to the University of Oklahoma's football coach.
Vendors paid more than $25,000 and travel expenses by agencies also will be listed; it also will list expenditures by agencies. Eventually, every vendor will be listed on the site.
Revenue sources for each agency also will be available, said Tony Hutchison, state finance director.
No fee will be charged for getting the information or going to the site, he said.
Visitors will be able to do a number of searches to gather information, he said.
"We have a lot of other stuff that's not searchable, but we will try to make it a one-stop shop,” Hutchison said.
"You can look at the state's comprehensive annual financial report. You'll be able to look at the revenue estimates.”
It also will have general financial information about the state, such as the top 10 agencies in terms of spending in the state.
The site, called "Open Books,” is the result of legislation, called the Taxpayer Transparency Act, which passed this year.
The measure requires the Web site to be operating by Jan. 1; its Web address will be www.openbooks.ok.gov.
"Open Books focuses on making sure the state's finances are open to the public and to the press,” Hutchison said. "Citizens may just want to know, ‘Where's my money being spent as far as these agencies are concerned – are they buying a lot of goods and services or are they spending it on personnel?'
"We're going to continue to try to keep improving it and make it valuable for people that want to find out what's going on in state government.”
Open Books also could be a starting point for some analysis by opinion leaders or policy makers, he said.
"It provides some information to start analyzing some basic questions,” Hutchison said.
"It won't answer all those questions, but at least it'll help you kind of organize your thoughts.”
He is using existing staff to get the site up and running, but it will require at least a couple programmers to update the site with new data.
How much will it cost?
Setting up the site and getting it operating will cost less than $400,000, Hutchison said.
He estimates it will take about $200,000 a year to keep it running and keep developing it.
"It's going to be pretty labor intensive in terms of updating things,” he said.
Information on the site will be as current as possible, he said. For example, payroll information will be the most recent, or probably just a month or two old.
Oklahoma, as organized by its constitution, is a decentralized state, and it's been difficult in the past to pull all the financial information together into one source, Hutchison said.
An information system started in 2002 is allowing the finance office to pull financial information together of the 515 state agencies, boards and commissions, he said.
"Information technology is letting us weave together information that had been previously more difficult to provide in one consistent format in one place,” Hutchison said.
Visitors to the Open Books site won't need a password to enter.
"We've tried to make ours really user friendly where just someone who is used to just searching on the Web can kind of just click and find information.”
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
As always, the best way to ruin anything is to let the government control it.
The reason so many work for the government (local, county, state, federal) is that the first order of government is self preservation and growth and this is true for all government bureaus and agencies.
Syed.. Several relatives can work for the same state agency, as long as none of the relatives are bosses or supervisers of the other relative. I think it is wrong myself.
This is a really good idea. I sincerely hope it is successful?
Does anybody know why there are so many government employees in Oklahoma? I have noticed a trend where the mom, daughter and the daughter-in-law work in the same department at a government agency or university.
Nepotism trends anyone?
I can't believe Hutchison said annual maintenance costs will 50% of the total development cost...That's certainly not a good sign to me. I've been in IT applications development management a long time (15+ years). Typical maintenance costs are 10-20%. Nothing like knowing it's going to be a bomb from the get-go. I'd be going over that contract with a magnifying glass. Judging by the lack of detail in his statements, I'd say Hutchison has no idea what will be delivered for the $400,000.
Beginning of what? I predict that this website will be rarely used by the general public and will be a complete waste of taxpayer money to build and maintain.
6
Prev
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Log in below or sign up (it's free).
The reason so many work for the government (local, county, state, federal) is that the first order of government is self preservation and growth and this is true for all government bureaus and agencies.
Does anybody know why there are so many government employees in Oklahoma? I have noticed a trend where the mom, daughter and the daughter-in-law work in the same department at a government agency or university.
Nepotism trends anyone?