Marta H. Mossburg

March 16, 2010

This week is “Sunshine Week,” launched to promote government transparency at the local, state and federal level.

While Gov. Martin O’Malley often touts how many statistics his administration puts on the Web, this week is a great opportunity to point out how the state could improve citizen access to information — a vital component to a healthy democracy. At a time when the state can little afford to waste money, Mr. O’Malley’s administration fails to adequately show how almost $1 billion each year is being used by nonprofit and for-profit companies given grants by state agencies. To put that figure in perspective, grants equal one-thirteenth of the operating budget and could send about 76,000 children to public school.

Legislation passed in 2009 requires the Department of Budget and Management to compile grant data from state agencies and post it in a searchable database. Fiscal 2009 information was posted six months late, on March 1, and the quality of it shows most agencies care little for fulfilling the spirit of the law. Worse, only about half the money is accounted for, as grants under $50,000 are not included in the database under the law.

Often, only the vaguest descriptions exist for how the money is used. “Minority outreach,” “capacity building” and “gang prevention” are common descriptions. What’s missing is an explanation for those meaningless phrases and whether an organization prevented children from joining gangs or did anything after allegedly “reaching out.” (The Department of Agriculture is an exception. It gives specific information about grant recipients, including the names of farmers receiving subsidy payments for installing systems to protect the Chesapeake Bay from chemicals, and those who received payments that prohibit development on their property.)

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