More Chaos As Usual
This Associated Press report does not inspire confidence, on multiple fronts…
Rhode Island’s government has fallen weeks behind on paying its bills, leaving hundreds of businesses and contractors in a financial lurch.
Officials in Gov. Don Carcieri’s administration say the state is at least five weeks late on many bills. It will need at least two months to catch up.
The state is facing a $151 million budget deficit for year ending in June, but Carcieri’s office says there’s still enough money. The problem is, his administration has reduced the number of clerks in an effort to cut costs.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
It’s in the Projo too.
Good job, Don. One more piece of ammo for the unions to shoot us in the face with.
Bravo.
Every minute of every day I regret the decision to move to his piss-ant third world country of a state.
We have seen the enemy and it is our own incompetence.
According to the Projo piece, what was once 185 clerks processing Accounts Payable, is now 14. This to process 8,016 invoices.
My bookkeeper managed all on his own to process 5,606 invoices last year and also managed to process 52 weeks of payroll for 70 people.
Even the 14 is too many!!! With that staffing level, each clerk would see about 2 invoices per day. Yet my empirical data point noted above indicates that one is capable of processing 10 times that number. The procedural controls in place must be so robust that all waste is elminiated, right?
Well, you know they’re working as slowly as possible in order to make the Gov look bad.
Greg,
My thoughts exactly! These state workers already the best and brightest among us (lol) are moving oh so slow in response to the governor’s layoff plan. The drivers pulled the same crap in the December snowstorm. The intentional spelling errors two years running with Treasurer Caprio’s $$ list is yet another example. This is something we’re simply going to have to go through as we do this very necessary downsizing housecleaning and blood letting of the state kennel. Only problem I have with the governor here is his administration needs to send out notice (assume they didn’t) to these vendors that payments will be delayed. They need to communicate better but the idea behind it is right. A state with a million people does not need a 5 billion $$ budget and 1 in 5 working for the government in some capacity. The governor has the right ideas. Just wish he would get fired up and talk to us about them more often.
I wonder if the “non-profit” providers of “social services” (i.e., members of this state’s welfare industry) are among those whose payments / reimbursements are being delayed?
I suspect not …