The highly respected Center for Public Integrity discovered what local reporters have learned about the high cost of public records in Massachusetts. The Center this week released the results of its nearly two-year investigation in conjunction with the Center for Investigative Reporting into state and local spending of Homeland Security funds.
This is what they found – or rather didn’t find – here:
“Officials in Massachusetts agreed in principal to supply the Center for Investigative Reporting with records showing how the state had used homeland security grants since 2001 but said that CIR would have to pay more than $7,000 to cover the cost of producing them,” reporters wrote on the Web site. “CIR had to decline but was able to obtain other publicly available documents detailing the Bay State’s use of federal funds.
“Auditors discovered in 2008 that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health couldn’t find a mass casualty trailer purchased with bioterrorism grants. Another trailer contained equipment that was either still in its original packaging or had never been tested. Massachusetts bought 10 of the trailers for approximately $42,000 each. An audit report also found that periodic drills involving the trailers and emergency-response equipment inside them had not occurred.”
You have to wonder what more would be available in those records kept from public view.