• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Nov 19, 2009 - Page: 14A

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A member of a cost-cutting group demanded to know Wednesday whether state officials hid how much money they spend on contracts with private firms.

Commission on Streamlining Government member Leonal Hardman, who is with the AFL-CIO, said the information would have been good to know earlier in the panel’s work process as decisions are made on which expenses to target for trimming.

He said the lack of information on the contracts led commission members to make recommendations that will disrupt families.

At issue are thousands of contracts hiring private companies to perform work that totals billions of dollars a year.

The commission’s chairman, state Sen. Jack Donahue, attempted to soothe discontent among commission members over the volume of contracts in state government. He advised commission members not to get discouraged.

Donahue, R-Mandeville, said there probably are abuses in the volume of state contracts.

But he said state government also needs to be right-sized.

The commission, which must develop a list of ways to cut costs in state government for Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Legislature by the end of the year, wants an explanation on why some of the contracts exist.

As of June, state agencies had more than 16,000 active contracts costing $7 billion, Karen LeBlanc, a senior auditor with the state Legislative Auditor’s Office, said earlier this week.

The discussion of contracts did not arise until recently, fairly late in the commission’s work on reviewing costs in state government.

State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek is scheduled to appear before the commission Monday to talk about his agency’s contracts.

The state is facing a $3 billion budget shortfall over the next two years. The commission already recommended closing ferries, cutting Medicaid program administrative costs, outsourcing more transportation engineering work and shifting programs.

The governor and legislators have final say on which recommendations move forward.