There are ways of being smart about saving state money and doing it in an efficient manner. And then there is the new plan from the Dunleavy administration, which is neither smart nor efficient.

Dunleavy is requiring that all state agencies that need to spend money on something must first write a memo about it and get that memo approved by the commissioner and by the governor’s office, through the Office of Management and Budget.

The new policy from Dunleavy seems like a deliberate attempt to make state government less effective, less efficient and more wasteful. It doesn’t apply to significant purchases over a certain amount. It applies to all purchases.

The new policy is going to ensure that every commissioner and the OMB director will spend a great deal more time reviewing memos instead of planning to get work accomplished.

The only things excluded from the new executive approval plan are regular recurring expenses, such as utility bills, lease payments and contract payments already in place, Neil Steininger, director of OMB, said in a May 22 memo to state executives.

“Any expenditure, of any amount, for operating appropriations requires approval by the department commissioner and OMB director,” Steininger wrote.

Since it applies to any expenditure of any amount, let’s imagine a state office that needs a new ballpoint pen and wants a 12-pack. The employee who needs the pen will have to write to his or her supervisor and move it up the chain of command.

The memo asking for the pen has to include “a justification for the expenditure, amount, description of the expenditure, vendor information, terms and any other relevant information. Further, explain why disapproval would prevent the agency from providing essential, non-discretionary services or would result in additional or increased costs.”

It’s going to take a good deal of time to get all that down and create the written justification for buying a new pen. And the employee’s supervisor will have to read the memo, pass it onto the commissioner and then onto OMB. The commissioner and the OMB director will have to read the memo and decide whether the employee really needs a pen or if it would be better to stick with a pencil.

This could really eat up a lot of state time.

Someone outside of state government who has heard about this new effort by Dunleavy said he suspects it will be interpreted by state employees as an invitation to stop spending, stop planning and stop getting things done. It’s possible that Dunleavy does want to make state government less effective and more inefficient.

The part of the memo I don’t get is the bit about “discretionary services.” If there is competent management in the executive branch, there are no discretionary services. The governor, his OMB director, and the commissioners better go back and check.

If the governor has decided that some state services approved in the budget are not required and that he has chosen to ignore the law, he should tell the public instead of keeping it secret.

What I do know is that no competent leader of the executive branch would demand that every expenditure, no matter how small, must be described in a detailed memo that has to be approved by a commissioner and by OMB.