THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE BILL

INTRODUCED BY MIRABITO, CHRISTIANA, GERBER, EACHUS, JOSEPHS, DeWEESE, HANNA, BENNINGHOFF, BRADFORD, BRIGGS, CUTLER, DePASQUALE, DRUCKER, FAIRCHILD, FREEMAN, GIBBONS, GRELL, HORNAMAN, HOUGHTON, KORTZ, LEVDANSKY, MATZIE, McILVAINE SMITH, MELIO, MUSTIO, QUINN, ROAE, ROCK, SAINATO, SHAPIRO, SIPTROTH, M. SMITH, VULAKOVICH, WHITE, MANDERINO AND REESE, JULY 21, 2009

AS REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AS AMENDED, NOVEMBER 10, 2009   

AN ACT

Establishing the Pennsylvania Government Accountability Portal;

providing for portal requirements and for data requirements;

conferring powers and conveying duties on the Treasury

Department and other State agencies; and providing for

exception to publication.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1.  Short title.

This act shall be known and may be cited as the Pennsylvania

Government Accountability Portal Act.

Section 2.  Definitions.

The following words and phrases when used in the act shall

have the meaning given to them in this section unless the

context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Class."  A group of employee positions sufficiently similar

in the duties performed, degree of supervision exercised or

received, minimum requirements of education or experience and

the knowledge, skills and abilities required to perform the

functions and duties of each position.

"Contract."  The term shall have the meaning given to it in

62 Pa.C.S. § 103 (relating to definitions) and shall include any

contract for professional services and a Statewide requirements

contract as that term is defined in 62 Pa.C.S. (relating to

procurement).

"Department."  The Treasury Department of the Commonwealth.

"Expenditure."  The outlay or transfer of any State-

appropriated or nonappropriated funds in an amount in excess of

$1,000 by any State agency, including, but not limited to,

contracts and subcontracts, purchase orders, tax refunds,

rebates and credits. The term shall not include the transfer of

Federal or State assistance payments to an individual recipient

or beneficiary of such assistance payments.

"Pennsylvania Government Accountability Portal" or "Penn-

GAP."  The fully searchable Internet website that allows the

public to search and aggregate the data required to be published

to it under this act and is accessible from any State agency's

home page.

"State agency" or "State agencies."  Any Commonwealth agency,

independent agency, legislative agency, judicial agency, State-

affiliated entity or State-related institution as those terms

are defined under the act of February 14, 2008 (P.L.6, No.3),

known as the Right-to-Know Law.

Section 3.  Pennsylvania Government Accountability Portal.

(a)  Establishment.--No later than July 1, 2010, the

secretary, with assistance from the Governor's Office, the

Department of Revenue, the Department of General Services, the

Department of State, the Auditor General, the Department of

Community and Economic Development, the Appropriations Committee

of the Senate, the Appropriations Committee of the House of

Representatives, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania

Courts and any other State agency, as necessary, shall develop,

maintain and make available a single fully searchable Internet

website which shall be known as Penn-GAP. Penn-GAP shall be

configured as a fully searchable database to allow any person to

examine and aggregate the data required to be maintained in

accordance with the provisions of this act.

(b)  Accessibility.--Penn-GAP shall be, except for

maintenance, technology upgrades or unanticipated technical

events, accessible on a 24-hour basis without cost and shall be

readable in plain and easily understandable language.

Section 4.  Portal requirements.

(a)  Webmaster.--Penn-Gap shall be maintained and serviced by

a full-time webmaster who shall be tasked with compiling and

updating the Penn-GAP database with information received from

State agencies.

(b)  Data requirements.--Penn-GAP shall provide the

following:

(1)  A searchable database of all current Commonwealth

expenditures, except for minor purchases not exceeding $1,000

in value and disbursements under public assistance and

Medicaid programs, consisting of financial data relating to

the purchase of goods and services, including professional

and technical services and financial disbursements through

various Commonwealth programs sorted separately by State

agency, expenditure category, amount of expenditure, contract

or vendor and legislative and senatorial districts.

(2)  If not reported under paragraph (1), a searchable

database of:

(i)  All expenditures for State agencies, as

applicable, including:

(A)  The total amount of expenditures.

(B)  The total amount expended from the General

Fund and other funds or accounts separate from the

General Fund.

(C)  The name of any person, other than an

individual, to whom an expenditure was made and the

amount of the expenditure.

(D)  The source of moneys for the expenditure.

(E)  The budget line item or activity for the

expenditure.

(F)  A brief summary detailing the purpose of the

expenditure.

(G)  The expected or actual performance outcome

for the expenditure.

(H)  A brief summary detailing any past

performance outcomes achieved for a similar

expenditure in a prior State fiscal year.

(I)  The amount and nature of bonded

indebtedness, including, but not limited to, the

total amount of obligation stated in terms of

principal and interest, an itemization of each

obligation, the term of each obligation, the source

of funding for repayment of each obligation, the

amounts of principal and interest previously paid to

reduce each obligation, if any, the balance remaining

of each obligation, any refinancing of any obligation

and the cited authority to issue such bonds.

(J)  The total amount of salaries and wages paid

to State agencies' employees.

(K)  Amounts paid under contracts, including

amounts paid to subcontractors.

(L)  Amounts paid for capital budget projects,

including original appropriation and disbursements

throughout the life of each project.

(ii)  Revenues received by each State agency,

including, but not limited to:

(A)  The total amount of revenues received.

(B)  The total amounts received from Federal

funds, the General Fund, the State Lottery Fund,

other funds or accounts, other dedicated funds or any

other source, each listed separately.

(iii)  A copy of any audit report that may be issued

by the Auditor General or any audit required under law

for any State agency.

(iv)  Salaries and total compensation for all elected

officials of State agencies.

(v)  Any other information that the secretary may

deem appropriate.

(3)  A searchable database of all tax credit programs

administered by the Department of Revenue under the

applicable provisions of the act of March 4, 1971 (P.L.6,

No.2), known as the Tax Reform Code of 1971, including

information on approved tax credits for projects undertaken

by businesses and those approved for individuals and

nonprofit organizations and other organizations. The tax

credit database shall be sorted by tax credit category,

amount of tax credit, recipient, purpose and legislative and

senatorial districts.

(4)  A searchable database of each business that failed

to pay the sales and use tax and each business that is

subject to auditing for underreporting the sales and use tax

collected. The database shall be sorted separately by name of

business, geographic location, actual or estimated amount of

unreported sales and use tax, amount of penalty and interest

assessed and findings of audit.

(5)  A searchable database of all revocations and

suspensions of professional and occupational licenses,

registrations or certificates by the various licensing boards

and commissions of the Bureau of Professional and

Occupational Affairs of the Department of State, which shall

be sorted separately by name, geographic location,

certificate, registration or license number, as applicable,

date of suspension or revocation and date of license,

certificate or registration reinstatement.

(6)  A searchable database of all current State

contracts, sorted separately by contractor or subcontractor

name, awarding officer or agency, contract value, the fund or

funds from which the entity or individual receiving the

contract will be paid, goods and services provided and

performance or expiration date.

(7)  A searchable database of all investments of public

funds, which shall include the following:

(i)  The total amount of funds held by the State

Treasurer.

(ii)  The asset allocation for investments made by

the State Treasurer.

(iii)  The benchmarks established by the State

Treasurer.

(iv)  Current and historic return information.

(v)  A detailed listing of time deposit balances,

including, for each deposit, the name of the financial

institution and the deposit rate.

(8)  A searchable database of completed audit reports of

State agencies prepared by the office of Auditor General,

including at least the following:

(i)  The agency that is the subject of the audit.

(ii)  The program or activity that is the subject of

the audit, if applicable.

(iii)  The entity performing the audit.

(iv)  The estimated completion date for an audit not

yet completed.

(v)  All costs associated with conducting the audit.

(vi)  A link to the Auditor General's website

containing the findings and results from the completed

audit after it has been released to the public.

(9)  A listing compiled annually and updated quarterly of

all State agencies' full-time positions grouped by job class

and sorted by the number of full-time employees, average

compensation in each class and the actual compensation for

each position receiving annual compensation equal to or more

than $50,000 per year. The listing required under this

paragraph shall not contain any personal identifying

information that can be used to identify an individual

employee or an entry for salary, wages or other compensation

paid to individual employees. The annual listing shall be

made available on Penn-GAP on or before January 31 of each

year.

(10)  A searchable database of monthly credit card

statements for each State agency, including credit card

statements for credit cards issued to officers and employees

of each State agency for official use. Each State agency

shall make its monthly credit card statement available to the

department for the purposes of Penn-GAP. The credit card

number on each statement shall be redacted prior to making

the statement available to the State Treasurer. Credit card

statements shall be made available no later than the 30th day

after the first date that any portion of the balance due as

depicted on the statement is paid.

(11)  Links to each State agency Internet website where

available.

(12)  A counter to show the number of times the Internet

website is accessed.

Section 5.  State agency cooperation and submission, publication

and retention of data.

(a)  State agency cooperation.--Each State agency shall

cooperate fully with the State Treasurer in compiling and

providing the data necessary to comply with the requirements of

this act and shall provide to the State Treasurer all data that

is required to be included in the website no later than 30 days

after the data becomes available to the State agency. The

department shall establish guidelines to govern the submission

of data by State agencies to ensure compliance with this

subsection.

(b)  Publication of data.--Penn-GAP shall become operational

to include data for the 2008-2009 State fiscal year no later

than July 1, 2010. Thereafter, Penn-GAP shall be updated as new

data becomes available in a format that can be compiled and

published on it by the department.

(c)  Retention of data.--The State Treasurer shall ensure

that all data published on Penn-GAP remains accessible to the

public for a minimum of ten years from the date of initial

publication.

Section 6.  Duties of department.

The department shall enforce the provisions of this act and

shall:

(1)  Collaborate with State agencies to carry out the

provisions of this act.

(2)  Determine the information to be compiled and

recommend a format for collecting and publishing information

from State universities, State-related universities, private

colleges and universities, public schools, community colleges

and political subdivisions that receive State appropriations.

(3)  Collaborate with State agencies to develop uniform

guidelines to govern the submission of data for publication

to Penn-GAP. The guidelines shall be published in the

Pennsylvania Bulletin.

Section 7.  Exception to publication.

Nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize the

publication of State agency data on Penn-GAP that is exempt from

publication under the act of February 14, 2008 (P.L.6, No.3),

known as the Right-to-Know Law, or to require disclosure of data

deemed to be confidential or otherwise exempt from disclosure

under any Federal or State law.

Section 8.  Funding.

The provisions of this act shall be implemented upon

appropriation of funds by the General Assembly to the department

and State agencies to carry out the purposes of this act.

Section 9.  Effective date.

This act shall take effect September 30, 2009 in 60 days.

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