In a rapid, question-free session on November 3, the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee (JLAC) rubber-stamped a staff report claiming that the requirements of the Transparency Florida Act have been met — even though the watchdog news organization Florida Bulldog found more than $6 billion in emergency contracts issued by the governor’s office that were not posted publicly, as the law mandates.
Co-chairs Chase Tramont, R-Port Orange, and Jason Brodeur, R-Lake Mary, led the meeting, during which the committee approved the report by voice vote in less than a minute and without discussion. The report included no recommendations to improve state transparency — despite the glaring absence of documentation for hundreds of contracts.
Florida Bulldog’s analysis revealed that more than 700 contracts were missing from the public database maintained by the state’s Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System (FACTS), in violation of the law’s requirement that agencies post contracts within 30 days of signing.
When asked for comment, one committee member, Yvonne Hinson, D-Gainesville, responded to Florida Bulldog: “I would like to believe the committee members do [investigate] as well” after seeing evidence of missing contracts, while also defending the chairman as “a fair and honest Christian.”
State administration officials attempted to defend the missing contracts by characterising them as “purchase orders” rather than contracts — a distinction, critics say, that is irrelevant under the law.
With the committee having the authority to order further audits, but having avoided doing so, the question remains: Will the transparency law be enforced, and meaningful scrutiny follow?
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