Knox County Officials confirmed today that two websites that had incorrect financial numbers have been fixed and updated.  In the recent weeks, this reporter has undertaken and completed an exhaustive investigative reporting task of examining hundreds of websites involving the County’s  “Open Government” portal on their website which can be found here.

 

While most websites were open, accurate, transparent and current, two had minor inaccuracies or were out of date. The first mistake  that had been discovered was on the County’s Purchasing website.  That website can be found here. Certain purchase orders were continually repeated throughout the order sheet.  After notifying the County Mayor’s communication department an immediate search for answers took place. It was soon discovered by the County’s Information Technology team that an “SQL” error was the root cause of the problem.  While combining information from multiple databases, certain numbers didn’t flow into the program as it was intended. This resulted in certain companies within the database to have repeating numbers that were not accurate.

 

The second error that was discovered was The Monthly Line Item Budget Transfers list. That website can be found here. As it turned out the website had not been updated in approximately a year and a half.  Nobody had either noticed or brought it to the attention of the Mayor’s Office.  Once it was brought to the attention of the Mayor’s Office it was rapidly addressed in 48 hours. With the large amount of data that needed to be updated, this was a very impressive task by the finance department.

 

The Knox County Mayor’s Office Chief Communications Manager and Public Information Officer, who is the key liaison official with the media, stated: “Knox County works hard to ensure that all information on our website is current and easy to access, but we always appreciate input and suggestions from members of the community.”

 

As long as people keep reading… I will keep investigating.

 

Dan Andrews reporting.