I think this is a great idea. Not just for the schools, but for all of Wichita’s government expenses. Actually, I meant for all of Kansas…heck, make that for all 50 states…and the federal government of course. All the counties, cities, states, everything. If we have to pay for it, why not let us see where it’s going?
Anybody disagree?
It’s a good idea 'cept it’s a not a checkbook. It’s a list of who they wrote checks too (I guess that is a check book). Without a running total and a signature from the person responsible for reconciling it each month against their bank statement we have no way of knowing how many checks were written that aren’t recorded on that excel worksheet. That sheet doesn’t even include check numbers. It’d be awfully easy to accidentally leave something off here and there while still maintaining a feeling of transparency wouldn’t it.
That, and it only lists payments to outside vendors.
So as a vendor, if the school negotiates a good price for widgets that you sell would you want everyone to be able to see what you charged? Wouldn’t everyone just come in and want that same price?
If only we had a system by which we could select a group of people to act on our behalf, and periodically be able to decide if we still wanted them to do it or to select someone else instead. That would be pretty cool.
In some states, I believe Wisconsin is one of them. You have to offer the same price, or at least the same quantity discount to everyone. So, the local community center sees that the computer shop in town sold the school some computers at $350, regularly $600 and the demands the same price. The computer shop can say “Sure, you can have them at $350 as well, but you have to order 600 of them and pay within 30 days of delivery, same as the school.”
Also, don’t forget, all you see in that checkbook is the total amount of the check written and who it was written to. We don’t see the invoices, so we don’t know what was actually purchased.