The new man in charge of the day-to-day operations of state government wants to see if the state is wasting money in the way it rents, buys, and disposes of things. Michael Kiethly is a successful businessman from southeast Missouri who has managed the behind-the-scenes work of the State Senate for the last couple of years. He’s been helping Governor Matt Blunt put together a proposed budget for the next fiscal year. Now he’s the new head of the State Office of Administration, the agency that oversees the nuts-and-bolts operations of state government. He says the state needs to start doing some things right. He says the state, as a business, is not very business-like. Kiethly says the state – and many of its subdivisions – buys or rents a lot of things without taking competitive bids – relying on market studies that might be several years old instead, to establish an appropriate price. Kiethly says that’s a poor way to manage state resources.
