Senate GOP urge Rendell to include grants in contracts database
July 23, 2008
By KARI L. ANDRED
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG — The state Department of Community and Economic Development has posted more than 400 grants and contracts on the Department of Treasury's new contract database as required by the state's new Right-to-Know Law.
But as of Wednesday only a few dozen grants had been posted on the website by other state agencies. And at least five agencies have not posted any at all.
The Contracts e-Library, a searchable online database for all state contracts from July 1 onward, went online on the Treasury's Web site at the beginning of the month.
Chuck Ardo, spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell, said grant contracts must be posted online, but that some agencies might not have formally issued grant contracts yet or that certain grants may fall into one of the exemptions stated in the law.
Senate GOP leaders sent a letter to Rendell Wednesday afternoon urging him to ensure that all state agencies are clear on the intent of the Right-to-Know Law and that all contracts for state agency-issued grants are included in the database.
"This online contract database was created pursuant to Pennsylvania’s new Open Records Law ... To make it as useful as possible, it is important that all state contracts be posted," Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, and Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, wrote in the letter.
"This includes grant contracts such as those regularly issued by the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission (PHMC) and other state agencies."
Ardo responded: "We intend to follow not only the letter of the law, but also the spirit of the law. We are not in any way trying to minimize our cooperation and our willingness to post those grants."
In addition to DCED, the state Department of Public Welfare and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, as of Wednesday, had posted on the contracts database dozens of grants awarded since July 1. The Department of Transportation also had listed a handful of transit agency grants.
The Department of Environmental Protection, as of Wednesday, had posted only one contract for a grant award, worth $86,689, to the Luzerne County Conservation District for the Toby Creek Watershed Assessment project.
But no grant contracts had been posted, as of Wednesday, for the departments of Aging, Conservation and Natural Resources, Education, Health and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Ardo, when asked about those agencies that hadn't listed any grant awards yet on the database, said: "It may be that the agencies don't issue grants or it's possible that they're not up-to-speed on the requirements of the new law."
Ardo said agency heads would be reminded by administration staff that they need to submit grant contracts to the database.
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