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Welcome to the latest edition of our podcast here at the Louisiana Department of Treasury. Young communications director Jeff Krer. Want to welcome our state treasurer, Dr. John Fleming.
Dr. Fleming,
Jeff, uh, today's topic is going to be about the important issue of transparency. And when you ran for this office, that was one of the promises you made to the people of Louisiana.
Right. Absolutely, Jeff. Uh, you know, I've been involved in government and elected positions and appointed positions. And I think, uh, that the the best run governments, whether it's federal or state or even local, is always where there's transparency and where the citizens have input and knowledge about what's going on.
And, uh, this is no different when I came on board nearly two years ago. It was important for me, uh, to communicate, and we have done a lot in that and through our media. We have social media. We're doing, of course, a telecast right now as a podcast. So we want to make sure that everyone that's interested in the state finances and what the state is doing and what we're doing in treasury, you know everything there is to know about what we're doing.
And our bond commission meetings are televised.
Yes, bond commission meetings are televised, and um, uh, of course, we're always releasing information through um, you know, publicly released things. Social media is very active. So, uh, this is all important, but we want to take that even further than just the Treasury Department. Right.
Right. And I think, uh, a few months ago, something that was started was historic for Louisiana because it really put a spotlight on where K through 12, uh, educational spending was going, and a massive project was launched by our department. And I commend you for for what was done because it was a herculean task, but it was completed, and now people really have an idea of where their money is going in the K through2 level, and I think that is tremendous transparency.
Right. Uh, heretofore, uh, nobody, unless you did some kind of deep dive with uh subpoena or some something of that release of information, you couldn't find out much at all about our school systems, our public schools, and our charter schools.
Well, we went live on March 31st with a transparency website, which, by the way, all you have to do is go to the Treasury website and you'll find it there. And we have a very user-friendly website that we upload all the information from all the the public and charter schools in the state.
And in it, you can, uh, again, in a very user-friendly way, you can see what each and every school does, what their administrative costs are, what are their contracts, who are the contracts with, what is their performance, what is the administrative cost versus teacher pay. All of that is disclosed there, and you can even compare one against another, one against many.
Uh, and look, we're in the era now of school choice. So, how better to choose a school but to know what the schools have to offer to you and how well they're run. And this information has been available since March 31st.
And frankly, we've uncovered a few things that we were uncomfortable with, that we felt was not a good use of taxpayer money, but we get right on top of that. We address that, and a lot of that appears to be improving greatly. So again, that's just the power of transparency and how it can be so helpful when it comes to government.
And because we were able to expose that, we've seen big improvements in the the followup from our from our schools, and a lot of that questionable spending seems to be gone.
Exactly. We're seeing that uh disappear. And again, we report anything we find to the a legislative auditor.
And also, uh, if people try to fake us out by putting the wrong information or wrong categories, remember that these accounts are going to be audited over time. So anything that any funny business is going to be discovered. So that's very important. But again, transparency is so huge with that.
But you know, uh, we're involved in another uh project.
I know, uh, because transparency is something that this uh department is committed to. And tell us about these CAS. What are CAS, and why is it important to have transparency as far as this uh these expenditures?
Well, CA stands for cooperative endeavor agreement. Now, what is that?
When money is appropriated from the legislature either to another government entity or to an NGO, a non-government entity, um, there has to be a contract because we don't just simply turn the money over. There's certain obligations of that entity that receives the money.
And so we put together, it's a standard form contract that goes along with what their type of need is and their type of funding. And so what we do is, uh, we get them to agree to certain conditions. They can't waste the money, and money has to be spent on what has been appropriated for by the legislature and signed by the governor.
And uh, and so what's important there is now, uh, we have moved from spreadsheets and hidden behind the curtain to digitized, computerized, and it'll be available publicly. So you'll be able to see the details of these appropriations and these cooperative endeavor agreements. So we're in the process of developing that now.
And it's also made it possible for us to do a better job to our customers, that is, the people receiving this money, that we can get these process much faster than we could before. And we've entered a training processes so the entities can know more about the money, how to apply for it, and how it ultimately, uh, we can get through the entire process and transaction, uh, with with little uh problems uh that arise with this.
So it's more transparent. We're modernizing it. Yes. Uh, we're working with these entities that are receiving the money, getting them their money uh quicker. We just have to make sure these legislators know everything that is going on.
Right. Absolutely. So important because the legislators are, and and as well as the governor, have to be a part of this process, but more importantly, the entities receiving the money and the citizens who are being served all need to be part of this process.
That's what transparency and governance is about. And we know that the best-run government is always one in which the citizens are deeply involved.
Dr. Fleming, thank you for this important update.
Thank you, Jeff.
Appreciate it very much, folks. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time for another edition of our podcast here at the Louisiana Department of Treasury.
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