Suspicious about how Florida taxpayers’ money is spent? Starting Wednesday anyone with internet access can let out their inner auditor. A new online tool called FACTS – Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System – allows the public to look up any government contract.
“Fifty billion dollars a year out of a $70 billion budget in this process goes out to where somebody else has been picked out of the crowd to provide a needed service that the legislature felt was necessary and the governor thought was appropriate to use your money to get done. And now for the first time we can go in and look. Was it bid? Was it sole-sourced? Were there real deliverables? Are there performance measures?” said Florida Cheif Financial Officer Jeff Atwater.
Because the system is new, there is a limited number of contracts on the site. It is up to each government agency to upload their contracts to the database. Atwater says he hopes the program will hopefully lower the amount of errors in government grants and contracts.