Demand Transparency/Accountability

Openness results in a smaller and less costly government that is more responsive to its citizens.

Each taxpayer-funded transaction should:

• indicate what the transaction is,

• its cost and why it occurred;

• offer an analysis of the impact of the money spent and how those who spent the money know.

To help accomplish this level of transparency, all tax-supported government entities and public agencies should post online within 30 days any and all updates to budgets, policies, practices, plans, check registers, financial summaries, procurements, competitions, special initiatives, consultant reports, lobbying initiatives, travel, full-time staffing, temporary staffing, all analyses, capital purchases, performance metrics, entity metric comparisons to best-in-class like entities, status on all goals, projects and initiatives and status on commitments for improvements, employee pay, benefits, policies and reviews.

Transparency is the first step toward accountability.