Jon Lender: Will watchdog state contracting board finally get enough budget funds, personnel — and respect?

A public-private partnership is a sort of mega-contract under which the government and one or more business entities can build something and/or join in a project that serves the public, such as a road or bridge or a system of health services. The relationship is much deeper and longer term than under a normal state contract. The governor’s DOT commissioner, Joseph Giuletti, testified that SB 920 would renew expired 2011 legislation that “was seen as an opportunity for the state to work with private entities to pursue state projects” but “has been unsuccessful in taking advantage of such agreements due to restrictive requirements.” Not one such project was approved during the decade covered by the original bill. The watchdog panel’s makeup is an unusual mix of fire-breathing union veterans, button-down business types and former government officials. The board has long been starved for operating funds by officials in the executive branch and legislature — and it has only one full-time employee, Executive Director David Guay. Now it’s fighting to get legislators and the governor to provide at least a few hundred thousand dollars more in this year’s budget deliberations for some staff that would enable it to do what it was created to do during the post-Rowland reform fervor. Guay and Fox noticed recently that legislation creating quasi-public agencies, which enjoy special powers and unusual autonomy, has left the contracting standards board without authority to fully investigate such agencies. They asked Tong for a legal opinion, and it confirmed their fears.

https://www.courant.com/politics/government-watch/hc-pol-lender-anti-corruption-safeguards-debated-20210320-npr54iju65ej5e3pd3zisqfjca-story.html

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