SHARE:
Government Efficiency
A Watchdog's Life
Gary VanLandingham's agency analyzes the efficiency of state programs. Sometimes its findings don't sit will with state leaders.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush was another not keen on OPPAGA’s work. Apparently miffed at the agency’s critiques of some of his privatization efforts, Bush twice attempted to eliminate funding for
OPPAGA. Rep. Ray Sansom and Sen. Jeff Atwater also took a whack at the office with legislation — ultimately unsuccessful — that would have made OPPAGA less independent by pushing it back into the auditor general’s office.
“Since that time, we have really tried to increase our communication with leadership to make sure we are meeting their information needs,” says VanLandingham. OPPAGA doesn’t have any partisan axes to grind, he says. “We’re not trying to make anybody look good or bad. We’re trying to tell the Legislature, to the best of our professional ability, what’s going on — here are the options we feel the Legislature could consider and the pluses and minuses of those options. Then we step back and let the Legislature make its policy decisions.”
The bottom line
VanLandingham says state lawmakers rely on his staff’s expertise in much the same way that a company’s board of directors turns to private consulting firms for unbiased advice. The cost of OPPAGA’s analyses, the equivalent of about $70 an hour, is about half what the state would pay a private firm to do the same work, he points out.
OPPAGA also generates value for taxpayers in other ways. A series of studies examining how the state buys its prescription drugs from the Medicaid program revealed that the state could save money by negotiating differently and altering reimbursement policies. The state has saved more than $100 million by adopting the new drug-buying methods. Overall, VanLandingham estimates that OPPAGA has saved Florida taxpayers “in the neighborhood” of $600 million to $700 million since its inception in 1994.
Money isn’t always the bottom line. In 2006, OPPAGA found that the cost of the state’s nursing home diversion program exceeded the Medicaid program’s nursing home costs for other frail elders. But OPPAGA had improved participants’ quality of life by delaying their entry into nursing homes. Participants also experienced shorter nursing home stays and were more likely to return to their homes. The Legislature expanded the program.
Currently, OPPAGA is examining a number of government programs, including Medicaid waiver programs and various funding options for the Corporate Income Tax Credit Scholarship program, which provides an income tax credit to corporations that contribute private school tuition money to kids from low-income families.
OPPAGA is also looking at Department of Corrections medical services to see if there are ways to control the costs of healthcare for inmates. And the agency is continuing its work with the Redirection Program, a juvenile justice program that provides alternatives to locking kids up.
All told, this year OPPAGA’s staff of around 70 will issue approximately 55 formal reports, 160 legislative research assistance memorandums and the mammoth Florida Government Accountability Report (FGAR), an internet electronic encyclopedia of 250 state government programs.
Despite occasional friction, VanLandingham says lawmakers are generally grateful for OPPAGA’s work and the savings that the agency finds. “Many times members will say, ‘Great job. We don’t like what you found, but we really need to hear it.’ ” Overall, the Legislature and agencies implement about three-fourths of the recommendations OPPAGA makes within two years.
Howard Rasmussen, a senior management consultant in the Florida Center for Public Management at Florida State University, says he’d be concerned if OPPAGA wasn’t causing a stir every now and then. “If they’re doing their jobs and they’re doing them professionally and well, that’s going to generate some heat. If somebody’s not upset, they may not be out there doing their job.”
