To increase transparency and accountability in state government, Governor Riley signed Executive Order Number 46 in February 2009.  This Executive Order called for the creation of a publically accessible website that details all spending by state government.

On March 22, 2009 Governor Riley signed Act 2009-750, which was later codified as Section 41-4-65 of the State Code of Alabama.  A copy of Section 41-4-65 can be found below.  This Act called for the State Comptroller to establish and post on the Internet a database of state expenditures, including contacts and grants that are electronically searchable by the public.  The database is to include the amount, date, payor and payee of expenditures.  The database is to be presented in a manner that is searchable and intuitive to users.  At a minimum the database shall allow users to 1) search expenditures by any element of the information, 2) ascertain through a single search the total amount of funding awarded to a person by a state entity, and 3) download information yielded by a search.  Posted information will not include information that is confidential, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) related information, or any other information that is subject to prohibitions by state and/or federal law/regulation (s)

The data for State agencies can be found here http://open.alabama.gov/spending.aspx .

By direction of the Office of the Governor, the Alabama Commission on Higher Education was tasked with creating on its website this page, which contains links to each institution’s posted expenditures.

Questions about the institutional databases should be directed to the institutions not to the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.

State Code of Alabama, Section 41-4-65