No lottery secrets
Thursday, December 29th, 2005
By Chris Fitzsimon
It may seem like small potatoes for the North Carolina lottery commission briefly to withhold the identity of companies intending to bid for contracts to operate the games — information available in public records. After all, the lobbying that led to the lottery’s passage is under investigation by a federal grand jury, and the games’ eventual proceeds are already being drained for sky-high staff salaries. Still, any time a government official denies access to public information, it’s a big deal.
Public records and information compiled by North Carolina government agencies are the property of the people under the laws of this state. That means "documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, films, sound recordings, magnetic or other tapes, electronic data processing records, artifacts, or other documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance in connection with the transaction of public business by any agency of North Carolina government or its subdivisions."
And just to make sure that lottery officials don’t consider themselves outside state government some day, the General Assembly specifically applied the public records law to the lottery commission. Clearly then, the letters of intent submitted by Scientific Games, Oberthur Gaming Technologies and GTECH are property of the people. (more…)
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