I would compare what the House Appropriations Committee is doing with cleaning out your personal filing cabinet. The difference is that hopefully your personal filing cabinet doesn't hold documents that cost you millions of dollars by just sitting there.

Yesterday the Appropriations Committee approved a series of proposed bills that would cut down on the number of contracts issued by the state. This move according to State Treasurer John Kennedy could save Louisiana millions of dollars. He suggests these contracts create spending that is simply not needed.

If you just spend four, five hours looking at these contracts, they're going to make you throw up.

When asked to give examples of contracts that needed to be examined and possibly discontinued Kennedy told the Louisiana Radio Network there were several that came to mind. He said the state had $ 29 million dollars tied up in a contract to build a website for food stamp recipients. He said another contract provided tutoring and adult education for the state's prisoners.

Kennedy had some very harsh and direct words for Governor John Bel Edwards.He suggested that the Governor call all of his cabinet secretaries together in a meeting and demand that they cut ten percent of their contracts.

At least one of those cabinet secretaries is going to say 'Governor Edwards, I can't, I need all of them.' That's the one you fire and the rest are going to fall into place.

In response to these allegations that the state has millions of dollars tied up in unnecessary contracts Jay Dardenne, Governor Edwards Commissioner of Administration said,

This governor has come in and said we're going to finally do something about contracts legislature. Rep. Richard has been screaming about it, the treasurer has been screaming about it. We're going to do something.

Dardenne said the process of scrutinizing state contracts is already underway.

 

 

 

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