Transparency at Work in Texas Suzy Whittenton Director of Fiscal Management Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts August 11, 2008

2 Transparency – An old issue “The liberties of a people never were nor ever will be secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them. … to cover, with the veil of secrecy, the common routine of business, is an abomination in the eyes of every intelligent man, and every friend to his country.” – Patrick Henry, Virginia revolutionary ( ).

August 11, Transparency – But still fresh “Government spending is often seen as impenetrable and unknowable. Taxpayers have the absolute right to know how their money is being spent, and it is only with transparency that government can be held truly accountable.” - Susan Combs, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts

August 11, Why did we put expenditures on line? Part of continued plan to set new standards for transparency and accountability in state spending. Taxpayers expect and deserve it — it’s their money. – Public has easy access to information useful in deciding whether tax dollars are being spent in a responsible manner.

August 11, Why did we put expenditures on line? State agencies have embraced the idea — we must better inform taxpayers about how the government spends their hard-earned dollars – We’re working with state agencies to upgrade technology or do whatever it takes to enable them to report their expenditures to post online.

August 11, Steps to Show “Where The Money Goes” Starting Simple – January 2007 – The first step was simple - posting the agency’s own detailed expenditures online. A high-profile link to the Web page was provided on the agency’s home page, which receives more than 15 million hits a month on average.

August 11, Steps to Show “Where The Money Goes” Opening the Window Wider – April 2007 – At the Comptroller’s request, 24 of the state’s largest agencies provided their detailed expenditures to the Comptroller’s office to post on the Web in simple table format to share with the public. These agencies account for close to 80 percent of state expenses.

August 11, Steps to Show “Where The Money Goes” Maximizing Existing Resources – June 2007 – The Comptroller’s office created a new Web presence for “Where the Money Goes” with: a glossary of state spending terms, additional information about state finances a list of ways state and federal government agencies were working to save taxpayer dollars. – A key component of the site was a simple drill-down Web application that allowed users to view state spending for all individual state agencies under broad spending categories for multiple fiscal years.

August 11, Steps to Show “Where The Money Goes” Fully Tapping the Power of Technology – October 2007 – House Bill 3430 called for an online state expenditure database – a virtual check register –by Oct. 1, – The Comptroller’s office leveraged the procurement of a new business intelligence hardware and software solution already underway. The cost for the detailed online expenditures database totaled $310,000 for programming the data warehouse and reporting tools. – The new database was unveiled online on Oct. 1, 2007.

August 11, Steps to Show “Where The Money Goes” Looking to the Future – October 2007 to the present – A short survey was added to the site to inform us of what people are looking for. – To help spread the word, the site is linked from all other Texas State agency Web sites.

August 11, How does the Statewide Expenditures system works? State expenditures from State Treasury funds are produced via Comptroller statewide systems – provides immediate access to agency payment information. Expenditure data is extracted from the statewide accounting system daily Confidential payment information is filtered out and the information is made available for public access. This is all designed to happen daily prior to 6 a.m.

August 11, Level of Detail Tracked 24 agencies have data down to the individual item level, such as pencils (same as NIGP code). We have contacted other agencies and found many lack an automated purchasing system or their system does not track at the NIGP code level. System changes would be required for all agencies to track the NIGP codes.

August 11, Where the Money Goes

August 11, Where the Money Goes

August 11, Where the Money Goes

August 11, Where the Money Goes

August 11, Where the Money Goes

August 11, Keys to Success Start with the information you have – Transparency does not have to be all or nothing. – The Comptroller’s office started by posting its own expenditures via a simple Web page. Invite others – Encourage other state entities to shine the light on state spending by doing their part to provide information. Look closely at your existing resources – The Comptroller’s office was able to repurpose an in-house application to provide a useful drill-down application online. Leverage your technology solutions – We included the extensive and searchable online database as a deliverable on a much larger business intelligence hardware and software solution.

August 11, Lessons Learned Protecting confidential data is a big issue State agencies may need lead time to adapt to new reporting environment Reconciliations can be cumbersome – Original payment – Payment cancellations – Refunds – Credits – Coding errors

August 11, Contact Information Where the Money Goes – View the Texas Comptroller’s “Where the Money Goes” state spending search tools at or contact us at (800) , ext Suzy Whittenton – Director of Fiscal Management Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts – (512) –