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House bill would drop monthly architect/engineer reports in favor of annual report and online dashboard
Summary
House Bill 704, introduced by Jim Chokas, would eliminate monthly reporting from the Department of Audits on architects and engineers, move to annual reporting and lean on an interactive online dashboard for public transparency; members raised concerns about loss of subcontractor reporting and possible impacts on monitoring monopolization.
Jim Chokas introduced House Bill 704 as a measure to stop monthly reporting of architects and engineers to the Department of Audits and instead require an annual report. Chokas said the monthly submission is incomplete — "only about 70% do it on a monthly per basis, but a 100% do it on an annual basis" — and argued the annual report is more reliable.
Chokas said the monthly filings often produced inaccurate data and that the annual compilation provides the dollar amounts and dates the committee needs. He told members the list contains more than 400 firms and said the monthly requirement was originally intended to prevent monopolization by engineers and architects in some regions.
Members questioned whether the bill removes the requirement to report subcontractors and whether shifting to annual reporting would reduce transparency. Leader Hughley asked specifically why subcontractor listings would be eliminated and why the committee would move from monthly directly to annual reporting rather than an intermediate cadence such as quarterly.
Representative Evans noted that lines in the draft bill cross out language requiring disclosure of subcontractors who receive above a certain dollar threshold, and said that because the state contracts with prime contractors rather than subcontractors, the change could remove useful public information. Chokas said the information is already available on the Internet and that the proposal passed committee unanimously last year; he described a planned interactive dashboard that would allow users to query contract counts, amounts and locations.
Committee leadership urged members with technical questions to meet the bill author offline. The measure was discussed but not voted on in this meeting; the committee set its calendar for Thursday to take up further business after the Appropriations Committee concludes its meeting.
The bill’s text and the specifics of subcontractor disclosure were not resolved during the session; members asked for clarifications from the bill author.
