Wisconsin Legislature: 2006-12-04 Assembly Journal

Attached please find the Department of Administration's contractual service purchasing report for Fiscal Year 2006 pursuant to §16.705(8), Wis. Stats.

State government continues to reduce reliance on contracting. In FY06, agencies cut contractual services spending by $5,356,356, or 1.26%, from FY05 levels. Likewise, the UW System trimmed contract spending by $5,070,460, or 6.89%. Together, State of Wisconsin contractual services spending decreased by $10,426,816, or 2.08%, from FY05.

In addition to directing agencies to place less reliance on contracts, Governor Doyle recently signed important legislation and an order to increase the transparency and accountability of state contracting:

• Cost Benefit Legislation. On January 5, 2006, Governor Doyle signed 2005 Wisconsin Act 89 requiring agencies and the UW to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of each proposed contractual service procurement over $25,000. On July 1, 2006, DOA implemented an emergency rule specifying uniform procedures for determining whether services are appropriate for contracting. The permanent Act 89 rule is pending final approval.

• Executive Order 137. On February 2, 2006, Governor Doyle signed Executive Order 137 directing that no employee of the Office of the Governor, and any unclassified agency head, commissioner, deputy agency head, executive assistant or division administrator may serve on a Request for Proposals evaluation committee. This Order ensures that all contract proposals are evaluated by career civil servants and other disinterested evaluators.

• Contract Sunshine Act. On May 19, 2006, Governor Doyle signed 2005 Wisconsin Act 410 requiring every State executive, legislative and judicial agency to post on the Internet all bids, proposals, orders or contracts of $10,000 or more. This legislation provides for greater transparency of contracting across all of State government.

A1201 If you have questions about this report, please contact Patrick Farley, Administrator, DOA Division of Enterprise Operations, at 266-0779.

Sincerely,

Stephen E. Bablitch

Secretary

Referred to committee on Government Operations and Spending Limitations.

__________________

State of Wisconsin
College Savings Program Board
Madison

November 7, 2006

To the Honorable, the Legislature:

We are pleased to submit the 2005-2006 College Savings Program Annual Report. This ninth annual report covers the EdVest and tomorrow's scholar plans, highlighting the key developments in the program over the past fiscal year, with summaries of the financial statements. The program experienced significant growth and success in FY06. As of June 30, we were helping to meet the college savings needs of over 214,000 current and future students and families nationwide with over $1.7 billion in assets under management.

Highlights for the year:

• In a nationwide competitive procurement, the program's administrative contracts were re-bid and Wells Fargo was selected as program manager for a five-year term.

• Account owners now enjoy lower fees, as the annual account fee payable to the Board and the annual account maintenance fee payable to Wells Fargo are now waived for Wisconsin residents.

• Total program fees now include some of the lowest among all "529" college savings plans nationally.

The College Savings Program Board and staff look forward to continued growth with quality service to participants in this exciting program. We're sending a cover letter regarding this report to all state legislators and will post the report on our website www.ost.state.wi.us/home/edvest.htm If you have any questions regarding the Annual Report, please contact Marty Olle at 264-7886.