Gov. Kevin Stitt has issued a report on the progress has made during his first 100 days in office.

Stitt signed into law legislation that forces five of the 12 largest state agencies to answer to the executive branch. Past governors have produced blue-ribbon studies showing that responsibility and power are spread so far and thin across state government that essentially no one is able to be held accountable by the voters.

This reform now allows the governor to fire poor performing agency directors and recruit the best talent for these leadership positions, answering directly to the executive branch for the first time in state history.

Stitt requested performance audits of nine agencies in order to complete performance audits of the 12 largest agencies that consume 90 percent of the state budget.

The most notable audit underway, at the request of Stitt, is an audit of the Medicaid rolls.

Stitt’s administration reduced the previous administration’s emergency supplemental budget request for Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) from $23 million in October 2018 down to $0.

OMES is an interfacing state agency that provides IT, human resources and other services to state agencies. Previously, OMES notified the Legislature that the agency needed an emergency injection of an additional $23 million before the end of the fiscal year.

Within the first two months, Stitt’s new Chief Operating Officer John Budd dug in to the finances of the agency and brought the emergency request to $16 million, and by April, COO Budd brought it down to $0 by changing processes within OMES, renegotiating vendor contracts, and leveraging the agency’s revolving funds.

Stitt introduced the first governor’s budget that outlines total dollars spent by state government.

Previous governor’s budgets focused solely on roughly 40 percent of the budget, the portion of tax dollars appropriated by the Legislature. Stitt’s budget also outlines federal dollars being spent to support state government as well as apportionments and fees, directly collected by state agencies.

Stitt appointed a Secretary of Digital Transformation, a brand new position, to help accomplish his vision to bring Oklahoma state government fully into the digital age. Already, Oklahoma has started:

• Modernizing state parks by making it possible for parks to accept credit cards in the field for the first time in state history.
• Launching the beta test for digital driver’s license that would be Real ID Compliant.
• Beginning the process to modernize the administrative rules website to make it more user friendly and transparent.
• Securing a vendor to relaunch Oklahoma’s checkbook online.