Bus service and other government contracts need openness

State lawmakers should support a commonsense bill to make public the names of school bus drivers employed by private companies. These businesses aren’t subject to the Kansas Open Records Act, even though they are doing government work. This is a growing problem as government outsources more and more of its work. A recent New York Times analysis determined that far more people now work under contracts than are employed directly by the federal government. The result is less openness and less accountability.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

5 Comments

  1. Steven Davis
    Posted February 21, 2007 at 6:22 am | Permalink

    “The result is less openness and less accountability.”

    And, your point is???

  2. Chris
    Posted February 21, 2007 at 8:12 am | Permalink

    The Republican push for privitization becomes a little more clear now. Why demand openness from those who receive government contracts? Some day I might want to hide behind a mandate of anonymity.

  3. ksfarmgrrl
    Posted February 21, 2007 at 8:21 am | Permalink

    “Some day I might want to hide behind a mandate of anonymity”

    Until you change your name to HALLIBURTON or BLACKWATER, you wont get that chance…

  4. Vaughn Tolle
    Posted February 21, 2007 at 10:14 am | Permalink

    A dilemma; while there needs to be openness, there are real issues surrounding identity theft, etc. While much can be done to minimize the opportunity for id theft, making the names of employees working for a government contractor available on demand does create a problem. I’ve no solution to this, as I feel there needs to be less secrecy, if you will, surrounding government contractors and, by extension, their employees; but I am sensitive to the possibility of mischief that unrestricted access to the names and other personal information of the “ordinary” employees might bring.

  5. political_mom
    Posted February 21, 2007 at 10:18 am | Permalink

    I agree this should be something that we shouldn’t even have to ask for.

    It should be done and all lawmakers should be on board.