ACEC California has long believed that the public favors a
state government that can promptly and efficiently achieve its goals and serve
its citizens while maintaining fiscal responsibility.
The State of California already has in place an overly
complex procurement process for hiring private sector firms in all aspects of
its business, including engineering and land surveying services. So it seems counterproductive and unnecessary
to add any further complexity to the process without clear public benefit.
But that’s exactly what some are trying to do. California is finally emerging from the
economic downturn and could rest on a solid economic footing well into the
future if government keeps the flexibility to use private sector expertise and
allows those experts to do an efficient job.
A bill
now in the Assembly seeks to place additional cost on the state and create additional
time-consuming steps for its agencies by requiring the Department of General
Services and other agencies using private contractors to create and maintain an
online database of these contracts.
This bill not only hurts competition, but is unnecessary and
part of a larger national effort to further restrict local agencies’ ability to
contract with the private sector. Perhaps
our citizens’ hard earned tax dollars would be better spent finally addressing
the real problems within our bureaucracy?
Posts
Well said Christian. Other states spent valuable effort studying their internal operations (e.g., Washington) during the downturn and found that strong private sector participation best serves the taxpayers. Private companies are more flexible, and able to quickly grow and shrink to accommodate workload, without the burden of long-term pension and medical obligations.
ReplyDeleteTom Blackburn, CE, GE
Blackburn Consulting