BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A consultant hired to devise money-savings ideas for Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration is being given an extra month to do its work.
Jindal’s chief budget adviser, Kristy Nichols, told the House Appropriations Committee on Monday that Alvarez & Marsal wasn’t finished with its review of state agencies or its recommendations, which were due in mid-April.
She said she expects the report at the end of May.
“We amended the contract to give them one more month, simply because we were working to get additional efficiencies in several agencies and we just were not finished with that work, so we thought it was beneficial to the state to continue that process,” Nichols said.
Lawmakers have questioned whether the $5 million contract was a waste of money or would generate politically unfeasible ideas that don’t translate into real savings. Nichols said the firm already has come up with ideas that generate more than $70 million in savings.
After lawmakers criticized the contract, the administration amended its agreement to require that the firm find $500 million in savings ideas.
The company was hired in December to look at ways to make state government programs more efficient without cutting services and to devise ideas for raising state revenue or tapping into existing federal financing streams without raising taxes.
The company’s contract with the state runs through 2016. However, if the Jindal administration wants more work beyond the final set of recommendations, the price tag would grow.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.