The Oklahoma Division of Government Efficiency (DOGE-OK) website, is reporting progress in cutting waste and boosting efficiency. Launched this month as part of Gov. Kevin Stitt’s plan to bring more transparency and accountability to his state, the site highlights state efforts to eliminate waste. These include cellphone reductions, resulting in $217,432 savings; and an artificial intelligence (AI) procurement solution that aims to take back 62,000 manpower hours a year while identifying wasteful purchases. The site also lists automated lawnmower purchases, LED lighting upgrades and fleet reductions. Multiple entries have been made this week, with most marked as “in process,” but start dates aren’t included.
Just a few weeks in the making, DOGE-OK sits within the state Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) and is tasked with submitting a comprehensive report on agency budget findings, recommendations for fiscal reforms and strategies for efficiencies by month’s end, according to a news release.
Lawmakers are considering additional transparency measures, including a public dashboard to track state education spending. House Bill 1621, the State Department of Education Spending Transparency Act, passed from the House to the state Senate March 10. Introduced Feb. 21 as the more general Government Spending Transparency Act, it would have required the state treasurer to stand up a public-facing online portal “which details information about certain expenditures.” Renamed and refocused, it now would require OMES to build and manage a searchable, public-facing portal containing the state education department’s spending information. If approved by lawmakers and the governor, it would take effect Nov. 1.
Another legislative effort would reshape how the state manages its technology infrastructure. Oklahoma consolidated 77 state agencies by mandate in six years, and 110 entities by 2018, according to a 2018 unification report. However, state Senate Bill 179 would reverse that course by shifting management of state IT back to individual state agencies. The bill sets out to give agencies autonomy regarding their own IT services, while keeping cybersecurity oversight centralized under OMES. OMES has many roles and duties including oversight of the state technology division, and is a far-reaching agency that includes the centralized Information Services Division (ISD). The bill intends to quicken agency decisions and implementations.
SB 179 wouldn’t eliminate statewide IT and cybersecurity oversight completely. The state CIO would continue to be an adviser and be responsible for defining and implementing a shared-services model, standardizing infrastructure, standardizing applications, approving IT and telecommunications purchasing, and maintaining reporting responsibilities. And statewide cybersecurity would remain centralized.
In response, an OMES fiscal summary of the bill projects that decentralization would cost up to $568 million at the outset and exceed $1.2 billion in five years; The bill’s author Sen. David Bullard, however, rejected those estimates in a Feb. 11 meeting. The bill was referred to the Appropriations Committee that day, where it remains.
Meanwhile, separate legislation would address how the state classifies and manages IT assets and staff. SB 68 would amend the Information Technology Consolidation and Coordination Act to reclassify equipment and services such as telecommunications and fiber networks as IT assets. It would define shared services, refine IT job descriptions, and differentiate between appropriated and non-appropriated agencies (respectively, those that do and don’t receive legislative funds). The bill’s title was amended Feb. 25 and it has been placed on general order, where it is subject to debate and amendment by state senators.
Last, lawmakers propose updating statutory language and repealing an inactive IT committee that helped usher in digital accessibility more than two decades ago. SB 676 would repeal state code that birthed the Electronic and the Information Technology Accessibility Advisory Council, created in 2004 and sunsetted in 2020. The bill would repeal five other entities, according to a news release.
The Oklahoma Legislature adjourns May 30.
