Florida Tech Accountability Institute Earns $100,000 SBA Grant

  Florida Institute of Technology has earned a $100,000 grant from the Small Business Administration to continue the work of the university’s Activity Based Total Accountability (ABTA) Institute. The ABTA concept, originated by Florida State Senator William J. Posey, is to provide and promote simplified accountability measures and cost/performance comparisons for effective decision making by government leaders.

“This effort creates transparency in government spending to serve the taxpayer,” says Center Director Deborah Sater Carstens, an associate professor of information systems in the Nathan M. Bisk College of Business. She adds, “Accountability in government is achieved only when total costs are considered in light of all activities performed by agencies. To successfully track total costs requires a standard system of measurement.”

State government budgets and performance reports are voluminous and difficult to understand by the average citizen. The ABTA Institute offers a simple solution to understanding government outcomes while promoting public trust. The purpose of this effort is to provide more transparency in government funding to display performance results.

The institute’s three goals are to 1) Assess the transparency of state government performance data, from a citizen perspective, for each of the 50 states; 2) Conduct a training pilot project to develop ABTA training and instruction; and 3) Promote transparency of information sharing among state constituency groups through a webinar to bring collaboration among state constituents to address government accountability.

Currently, the ABTA Institute is analyzing transparency websites to assess the level of transparency provided by a state as well as how usable and meaningful the data provided is to a citizen.

For more information, visit www.abta.fit.edu.