BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 172
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 4, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 172 (Eng) - As Amended: March 31, 2011
Policy Committee: Business and
Professions Vote: 6 - 2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires every state agency to annually prepare a
report listing personal services and consulting services
contracts entered into during the previous fiscal year. In
addition, requires every state agency to provide a link to a Web
site that includes a listing of the contracts entered into
during the fiscal year. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the report to include specified information about
each contract, including the statutory authorization,
duration, total contract price, amount paid during the fiscal
year, and the number, cost, bill rate, and staffing levels for
each type of contract employee.
2)Requires the cost and relevant staffing information to be
organized into the following contract categories:
a) Architectural, engineering, and environmental services.
b) Information technology (IT) services.
c) All other contracts that include personal services and
consulting services.
1)Requires the agency reports to be submitted electronically to
the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Legislature within 60
working days after the end of the prior fiscal year, and
requires that the report be made available to the public in an
electronic format similar to the format used for the Wages and
Salary Supplement Report
2)Requires every contractor to electronically provide to the
contracting state agency the information required in (1) and
AB 172
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(2).
3)Makes failure of the contractor to provide the information a
material breach of the contract and makes that contractor
ineligible for future state contracts and for payments on any
ongoing contracts until the required information is provided.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)One-time costs associated with changing the eProcurement
database to include the new fields and reporting functionality
would be approximately $1.2 million (GF).
2)On-going costs to maintain the new database, oversee
compliance, and conduct regulatory hearings resulting from
disputes could exceed $1 million (GF) annually.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . According to the author's office, this bill is
intended to mirror the former governor's Executive Order on
transparency and place it in statute. The author contends,
"There is a need for transparency in order for Californians to
have a window on how the State is spending its resources and
conducting the people's business."
The author is concerned that information which is completed
and kept by individual departments is not readily accessible
to the public.
2)Governor's Executive Order S-20-09 . The executive order
required that state agencies and departments post to the
Reporting Government Transparency web site program reviews,
monitoring and accountability reports, evaluations,
inspections, assessments and studies of their operations
dating back to January 1, 2008. In addition, it requires that
agency and department web pages provide easy access to these
documents. Departments and agencies are required to post
future documents to the Reporting Government Transparency web
site within 5 working days of finalization.
3)Governor's Executive Order S-08-09 . This executive order
required that starting June 19, 2009, DGC and the OCIO to
ensure that all awarded contracts valued at $5,000 or more
dating to March 2009, shall be placed on the Reporting
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Government Transparency Internet Web site.
4)Previous Legislation . AB 1899 (Eng) of 2010, requires state
agencies, DGS, and the office of the State Chief Information
Officer to post specified audits and contracts to the state's
Reporting Transparency in Government Internet Web site. This
bill was vetoed.
AB 756 (Eng) of 2009, requires each state agency to provide a
link to a centrally located and accessible state-run Internet
Web site that includes a list of personal and consulting
services contracts. This bill was vetoed.
AB 2603 (Eng) of 2008, requires state agencies to annually
prepare a report listing personal services and consulting
services contracts entered into during the previous fiscal
year. This bill was held in the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081