A pair of news developments has put a fresh face on an old problem — the state’s expensive and dysfunctional red-tape machine.
Let’s start with HBJ senior writer Greg Bordonaro’s examination of the state’s largest office real estate purchase in a generation.
The state is on the right track with its interest in buying office space to replace leased. If there is one overarching truth in Connecticut, it seems to be that state government isn’t going to shrink anytime soon. So why not make the smart business decision and buy the space you need? And today’s buyer’s market provides an added financial incentive.
But a closer reading of Bordonaro’s stories this week reveals the excessive number of hands involved in the deal over the course of 18 months. Due diligence is wonderful. It’s the public’s money and safeguards need to be rigorous. But does it really take weekly meetings for nearly two years and a host of outside consultants to come to the obvious conclusion?
Shane Mallory, the man at the helm of this unwieldy process, paints a sharp contrast with his days in the private sector when he could meet with the CEO and get all the authority he needed to make a deal. Nobody is suggesting a process that streamlined. But if we run a tab on the cost of all those state meetings, plus the consultants and the lawyers, the number would be blinding. It’s also a number legislative Republicans would be smart to seek, because the contrast to what was necessary is likely an outrage.
A different verse of the same song was playing when the Connecticut Institute for the 21st Century unveiled its study of state contracting practices involving the nonprofit sector.
To nobody’s surprise, the business consultants at BlumShapiro who did the work found late payments, inconsistent rules and a tangle of paperwork that is strangling the state’s nonprofit community.
The report recommends streamlining the request-for-proposal process and centralizing the handling of contracts that are now strewn across seven agencies. It’s not a new concept. The Community Providers Association and the Cabinet on Nonprofit Health and Human Services made a similar plea last year.
The money at stake is vast — an estimated $1.5 billion a year. Study after study has shown that nonprofits are more effective at delivering social service programs than the state. But inconsistent contract procedures and payment delays are taking a toll on the nonprofits, which already are operating on a razor-thin margin.
Now, the report suggests a new entity to handle the contracting. While we’re in accord that the current system is broken, we’re not prepared to endorse creating any new entities within state government unless it can be done with savings from tearing down the old structure. Too often government tends to favor piling new solutions on top of old ones — redundancy rather than efficiency.
The takeaway here seems obvious. The state needs a top-to-bottom review of its processes in the key areas of contracting for real estate and for the services of nonprofits. The ‘lean’ methodology that the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection used last year to streamline its permit handling might be a place to start.
Governor Malloy has long presented himself as a champion of efficient government. The Hartford Business Journal and the Connecticut Institute for the 21st Century have put the ball on the tee. Here’s a chance for him to hit a home run.
