During a CapTon interview last night, IDC Leader Jeff Klein broke with his power-sharing allies, the Senate Republicans, on the subject of procurement reform, saying he doesn’t see the need for a key espect of a bill they have been pushing to overhaul the way the state awards millions upon millions of dollars worth of contracts.
First, Klein said he feels a three-way agreement on this, or any other issue, is always preferable because that, in his opinion, is “how we move legislation forward in a positive way.” He did not seem terribly keen on the idea that has been voiced by Deputy Senate Majority Leader John DeFrancisco and others that the Senate and Assembly should do a two-way deal before the session ends, and then attempt an override should the governor respond with a veto.
For the record, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has said he, too, would prefer to see a three-way agreement on this.
But the governor has not shown much interest in going along with that state lawmakers and good government groups are pushing on this issue in the way of the Buffalo Billion scandal – even though it touched his own inner circle – saying he would like to see an independent procurement officer that he would appoint, and not a restoration of pre-contract auditing power to the state comptroller’s office.
Klein voiced agreement with the governor on the comptroller issue, but was a little bit vague on who should be doing the contract oversight.
“The way we really police the procurement process is not necessarily giving the comptroller more power, because right now the comptroller of the state of New York has post audit ability,” Klein said. “So, I would assume if there’s a problem, anything you’d spot in a pre-audit you’d be able to spot in a post audit.”
“I think the better way to go is to have some type of independent prosecutor, independent advisory commission, or basically appoint somebody to make sure there’s no bribery in the contracting process, no favoritism in the process. And that sort of prosecutor or investigator of whatever you want to call them would then have the ability to refer that to the proper law enforcement.”
Klein didn’t elaborate on who would be doing the appointing of this independent watchdog, but neither did he specifically voice support for what the governor has proposed.
