Gov. Beverly Perdue has issued 11 executive orders so far:

1. Campaign endowment. Creates a task force to develop a public endowment for gubernatorial campaigns. Jan. 12.

2. Transportation board. Reforms the board of transportation by improving its ethics policy and requiring more professional approval. Jan. 12.

3. Accountability. Orders review of state government programs. Jan. 12.

4. N.C. OpenBook. Creates online database of state contracts and grants. Jan. 12.

5. Budget commission. Creates a panel to recommend ways to cut the state budget. Jan. 12.

6. Cut spending. Orders state to reduce spending and cut off capital projects in order to keep budget in the black. Jan. 13.

7. State of emergency. Declares state of emergency over winter storm. Jan. 20.

8. End emergency. Ends state of emergency. Jan. 21.

9. EMS Rules. Makes permanent rules about emergency medical and trauma services. March 3.

10. State health council. Requires members to disclose conflicts of interest. March 3.

11. Furloughs. Cuts teacher pay by a half percent for 2008 fiscal year in exchange for 10 hours of leave. April 28.

Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton's office had some trouble with N.C. OpenBook.

The only grant listed for the lieutenant governor in a new online database appears to be some kind of coding mistake. 

State contracts are now available online.

Gov. Beverly Perdue announced today the launch of N.C. OpenBook, a Web site that provides a database of 2,500 state contracts and 5,000 grants.

"We’re going to let the sun shine in on state contracts," Perdue said in a statement.

The Office of State Budget and Management is working with state agencies to streamline paperwork so that all contracts will be available by the end of the year.

Perdue also pledged to feature information about state agency performance measures and planning on the site eventually.

Modeled after state and federal transparency efforts, N.C. Open Book was created by an executive order on Perdue's first day, fulfilling a campaign promise.

The project will cost an estimated $900,000.

Gov. Bevely Perdue's open book will cost $900,000.

A panel charged with making the state's data systems work together approved Friday spending up to $900,000 to build NC OpenBook, which would make state contracts, grants and spending searchable and accessible to the public, reports Ben Niolet.

Perdue pledged during the campaign that she would make state contracts easier to track. She called for the OpenBook project in an executive order on her first day at work.

But getting all the state's procurement systems to talk to each other isn't a simple job, said Jonathan Womer, deputy state budget director.

The goal is to have a limited system up and running for testing by spring. A more complete site that would be accessible by the public would be ready in the summer, he said.

The state is modeling its site on the federal site, USAspending.gov.

The plan is to allow searches by vendor and agency as well as by geography, such as by county or legislative district.

The money will come from a $5 million pot the legislature dedicated to data integration, said State Controller David McCoy.

Beverly Perdue wants state contracts to be searchable online.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate announced a plan called "N.C. OpenBook" that would create an easy-to-use search engine and Web site for state contracts and grants worth more than $10,000.

"In today's world, open access means what can I find on the web," she said in a statement.  "In a digital world, there is no excuse for not opening the books on state contracts for everyone to see." 

She said that state Web sites either do not have grant records online or are not easy to navigate. 

In the 2005-06 budget cycle, North Carolina spent $606 million on nearly 4,000 state contracts and grants.