Accountability AND transparency

By Maria Ortiz Perez
June 25th, 2009

Today’s article in the Boston Globe definitively gives us a ray of hope in our quest to fight corruption in Massachusetts.  However, the article focused mainly on a bill that would restrict lobbyist donations, which touched only on 2 of the 40 plus acts proposed by the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight.

I was surprised not to see the word “Transparency” mentioned even once in this article (that was, by the way, mentioned in over 15 acts).

House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said:

“By filing this bill, we will begin to restore the public confidence in government. This bill sends a very clear message to everyone: We are accountable. We hear the public’s cry for reform.”

However, it is meaningless to talk about accountability without addressing transparency issues.  You can’t have one without the other. Granted, talking about how to present the state’s budget line items is not as juicy a conversation as reporting on Beacon Hill scandals or giving a false sense of hope that somehow reducing the contributions of lobbyists is going to make fund allocation more efficient.

If we want our government to really hear our “cry for reform”, we need to ensure that the public is informed on how government is actually using resources. Spare us the grand victorious statements. We just want to know.