TOPICS
TOPICS
States adjust to handle stimulus pressures
State governments receiving federal Recovery Act funds are adjusting their operating procedures to balance the competing goals of creating jobs quickly while ensuring the money is spent wisely, management officials said on Thursday during an online conference.
In Ohio, for example, procurement officials are streamlining their competitive bidding practices to accelerate contract awards. But as a precaution against potential waste and mismanagement, officials also are incorporating a host of internal controls, such as risk assessments, for stimulus projects.
"States must follow a disciplined process, but in an expedited way," said W. Frederick Thompson, a senior adviser for the Pew Center on the States during a webinar hosted by Pew and the Government Innovators Network at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "They also must make sure they are not shortcutting the process."
According to the Government Accountability Office, more than half the funds in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be dispersed by state and local governments.
A recent analysis by the Project on Government Oversight found that every state but Louisiana now has a separate Web site dedicated to tracking stimulus projects. But besides bare-bones transparency, state governments -- many depleted by budget cuts -- have a limited capacity to manage, track, report and provide adequate oversight of Recovery Act funds, observers said.
Neal Johnson, director of Pew's Government Performance Project, said state governments are not structured to spend funds as quickly as the Obama administration has proposed. But, with detailed federal requirements on how the money must be spent, state officials are making adjustments on the fly.
"None of us can afford to squander this opportunity," he said. "This is an incredibly high level of spending and transparency, and we are just trying to figure out what it all means."
Ohio began preparing for how it would manage Recovery Act funds well before the bill was signed into law in February. And the early planning appears to be paying off, said Terry Tyler, the state's chief procurement officer.
"We had no idea how the federal government would distribute the funds, but we knew that the interest would be tremendous," Tyler said.
State officials quickly set up an enterprisewide system -- Ohio has one of the more advanced IT infrastructures among state governments -- that can track all stimulus project data elements in one centralized location.
To comply with federal guidelines to allocate money quickly and competitively, state procurement officials trimmed in half the time it typically takes to award a contract, either through a basic invitation to bid or by a request for proposal.
Pew officials suggested that other states follow Ohio's lead and develop performance measures for Recovery Act projects to determine which methods are working, which are failing to deliver results, and how the stimulus spending fits into their overall fiscal picture.
Not all state governments have the resources or tools in place to develop such a system, some observers said. Many states, including New York and California, are attempting to spend new funds with a leaner workforce and limited administrative resources because of recent budget cutbacks.
Other states, webinar participants noted, appeared to be struggling with the bevy of federal regulations placed on stimulus recipients, from intensive data tracking to socioeconomic goals for contract awardees.
During Pew's online conference, Greg Rothwell, the former chief procurement officer at the Homeland Security Department, worried that the rules could "create paralysis" among state procurement officers and send the message that "we care more about the process" than about spending stimulus money quickly.
COMMENTS
- Here in Western New York we are very interested in stimulus money for Green Energy, especially wind generated renewable energy as we are reportedly windier than the windy city. However, when it comes to stimulus money we are faced with a few dilemmas common to all dysfunctional entities, not just the US Congress and our NYS Legislature, who’s secretive and divisive methods of spending our money, would make an Iraqi Warlord blush. •First, we need to credibly account for all dollars dispersed by the federal government and received by our state government or any other entity on behalf of taxpayers of NYS and the rest of the USA, •Second, we especially need to continually assess if these borrowed dollars are delivering the necessary audible bang for each buck, to what end, and to what extent that end is for the common desire (since our courts consistently bow to influences favoring the greater desire over the greater good). Since we have let our steel industry infrastructures decline and our manufacturing jobs leave our economy, if you look at where the wind turbines, blades and structures are being manufactured you will note that most of our tax dollars used for stimulus purposes will only stimulate economies outside the USA. In addition, as any potential fuel and operational savings attributable to the use of renewable energy will most likely be passed on via rate hikes, profit to shareholders of the utilities and most damaging of all interest paid on stimulus dollars, again most likely destine to stimulate other economies. So we can only ask how much stimulus was generated by the expenditures made to contractors not including any unauthorized workers and authorized foreign employees installing these green machines. My only questions are, How much GREEN? and Who’s pockets are GETTING GREENER. WEB Posted May 22, 2009 2:44 PM
- Does anyone doubt that funds will not be distributed in a politically correct manner. NOTE: Politically correct does not equate, in general, to efficient and effective. You may cherry pick your results to support your politics, however, in general, this is going to be a waste without any justifiable result other than a momentary feel good moment...like having a caffeine laden energy drink, snapping your fingers a couple times, then crashing to the floor on your face. Hope will be continued for a moment longer that no one will need to work to produce a product that someone would actually spend their money on. TDK Posted May 18, 2009 12:00 PM
- do we have a workshop on ARRA on the July agenda? Nolita Pollard Posted May 18, 2009 7:28 AM
