More than 80 state agencies, including UW-Madison, are not in compliance with an open records law that requires all state agencies to report their contractual agreements on an aggregate website maintained by the Government Accountability Board.
The 2005 law requires the GAB to maintain a website called Contract Sunshine, which was intended to make all contract agreements between state agencies and contractors publicly available in one online location. According to Reid Magney, GAB spokesperson, it is up to the individual agencies to post their contract information.
""Agencies who are not filing information with Contract Sunshine are not in compliance with the law,"" he said. None of the UW System's 26 campuses is in compliance, according to Magney.
""We have had some discussions with the university system in terms of why [they] aren't inputting the information and what kind of changes [to the] system would make it easier for them to do that,"" he said.
Magney said the state Legislature did not include enforcement provisions when it originally passed the law. He said the ""issue has been compliance"" and said many state agencies do not have the resources or personnel to post contracting data on Contract Sunshine.
State Auditor Jan Mueller said the law does not require the Legislative Audit Bureau to conduct an audit of the program.
""Obviously with an enterprise the size of Wisconsin, we can't audit all things,"" she said. ""I think it's best to say we are continuing to monitor the situation.""
Magney said the $81 million payroll and computer system contract between the UW System and Huron Consulting Group is an example of the type of contract that should be listed on Contract Sunshine.
""Something like that should be [listed] ... the contracts and change orders—there should be some information about that. To what level of detail, I'm not certain,"" Magney said.
UW System officials were unavailable for comment because of a mandated furlough day.
State Sen. Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay, was involved in developing the law and said he was ""very disappointed at the lack of implementation.""
""This is transparency for who is contracting with the state,"" he said. ""We're definitely very interested in following up on this.""
Magney said the law also does not set up penalties for agencies that fail to obey the law.
""The Legislature didn't give us enforcement power,"" he said. ""The law gives us no mechanism to make them comply.""
