In an effort to improve transparency in government spending, the office of the City of Baltimore‘s Comptroller Bill Henry has created a searchable database of all Board of Estimates (BOE) transactions dating back to January 2021.
The database, which the Comptroller’s Office publicly launched today, was developed through Airtable. The office’s data fellow Zachary Harris did most of the heavy lifting. Now, when a reporter, resident, or city official wants to know if that spending contract for that asbestos company was approved (or, say, what spending contracts were approved after a ransomware attack shut the city down), they can do so via a one-stop database.
“I’ve wanted this since day one in office,” Comptroller Henry said in a statement. “The database will help constituents follow the spending of public money and understand how to better direct inquiries and concerns.”
