State debuts lame ‘transparency in government’ website
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Let it first be said: The state Department of Audits and Accounting produces quality reports about government waste and efficiency, the kind that provide for fascinating reading. That is, if you’re into policy and government review. The scathing criticism you are about to read is not directed at the department, but at government accounting as a whole, and at politicians who think simply “putting the facts out there” leads to any kind of progress or transparency.
That being said, fans of open government might first be pleased and then pissed off with a new state website that launched yesterday and which is maintained by the department. That site, “Open Georgia: Transparency in Government,” allows users to search employee salaries and view how much our elected overlords doled out to professional service vendors during the last two fiscal years. The site, the brainchild of state Sens. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock and Chip Pearson, R-Dawsonville, met the Jan. 2009 launch date set by Gov. Sonny Perdue.
But judging from its contents, the governor should’ve given them some more time.
