Local governments in North Carolina are embracing transparency. The town of Columbus in Polk County, with about 1,000 residents, has made more progress than much larger cities. School districts and other towns are sending updates to NCTransparency.com, and many are asking what they can do to get a higher grade.
Most of the emphasis so far has been on making the books open to the public as part of making government more open. But private companies, other state governments, and nonprofits have also learned that open financial information can improve processes within an organization, too, as a new Management Tip from Harvard Business Publishing explains.
Or consider this example from Texas:
Using information from the spending portal hosted by her agency, Texas Comptroller Susan Comb has identified $2.3 million in savings in her agency alone. Among these was the discovery that the agency had five contracts for toner. Those contracts have since been consolidated into one contract at a cost saving of about $73,000. Additional savings of $250,000 were realized by not printing a study that was already being printed by another agency.
