MADISON – Today, the independent Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) released its audit of Wisconsin’s Contract Sunshine Act, which was enacted in May 2006. This requires all state agencies to report, within 24 hours, their purchasing activities of $10,000 or more in a fiscal biennium to the Government Accountability Board (GAB) for posting to a publicly accessible Web site located at http://sunshine.wi.gov. Only minimal GAB resources have been devoted to developing and maintaining the Web site.

 

“I’ve been very involved in making government more transparent and am happy to see the release of this audit,” said Sen. Cowles (R-Green Bay). “We are spending taxpayer money and they deserve to know what problems exist and how we, as a legislature, plan to make government purchasing information as clear and useful to the public as possible.”

 

LAB found the Contract Sunshine Web site of limited value in providing the public with clear, comprehensive, and useful information. For example, the Contract Sunshine Act requires state agencies to report only the estimated values of transactions, while actual expenditures may differ significantly from these estimates. The Act also does not require agencies to report vendor names, which makes it difficult for a public user to locate particular transactions.

 

LAB also found that numerous limitations in the Web site’s design have affected the timeliness and comprehensiveness of agency reporting. For example, transactions generally cannot be transferred automatically by agencies and must instead be compiled and reported manually by agency staff.

 

“We need to take the findings of the audit and strongly contemplate change,” said Rep. Kerkman (R-Randall). Transparency in government is important and should be able to be accomplished without duplication.”

 

In 2011 Wisconsin Act 32, the Legislature directed the Department of Administration to establish a new publicly accessible Web site that will report all expenditures for state operations exceeding $100. If implemented as specified, this new Web site could be more useful than the Contract Sunshine Web site for public monitoring of government purchasing. However, before the Legislature considers repealing Contract Sunshine statutes, LAB notes that it will be important to ensure that the new Web site can achieve its intended goals at a reasonable cost and in a timely manner. LAB recommends that DOA report to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee in January 2012 on the status of its efforts to implement the new Web site.

 

For additional information about the Contract Sunshine audit, or to obtain a copy of report 11-11, please visit the LAB Web site at http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lab/ or call 608-266-2818.