After several departments took a beating at an Assembly Accountability & Administrative Review hearing on Feb. 10, the Department of General Services issued a memo last Thursday that requires agency secretaries, department directors or their assigned representatives certify that all purchases are "mission critical." (Click here for Andrew McIntosh's report on the policy.)
"(N)o work will be initiated, no documents will be reviewed, and no contracts will be approved without the certification," the DGS memo says.
Staff members of the committee, which is chaired by Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, found that DGS approved the following in 2009: $30 million for furniture, $43.4 million on light duty and passenger vehicles (the figure excludes emergency vehicles) and $2.3 million for conferences and outside meetings. Bee Capitol Bureau colleague Jim Sanders covered the hearing in this report.
Click here to see the video of the hearing. The meeting starts at the 14-minute mark of the 3-hour hearing. You can read the DGS memo, issued Thursday but made retroactively effective to Feb. 11 -- the day after the committee hearing -- by clicking this link.
Now it's your turn. Weigh in on our poll. And, as always, we welcome your comments.
IMAGE: Hector De La Torre / www.democrats.assembly.ca.gov
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