Improving D.O.T. Consultant Contract Procedures (CCBR Analysis, Vol. 3, No. 5 — June 1981) examines the Florida Department of Transportation’s rapidly growing use of private consultants for design, construction engineering inspection (CEI), and routine highway maintenance work traditionally performed in-house. The Citizens Council for Budget Research — Florida TaxWatch’s predecessor organization — reviewed DOT’s own cost studies alongside comparisons from other states and found that contracting consultants for design and CEI work cost 19–73% more than using in-house staff during normal workload periods, while the cost-effectiveness of contracting routine maintenance remained inconclusive due to flaws in DOT’s internal accounting systems. The report’s central finding was that current Florida law barred state and local governments from competitively bidding architectural and engineering contracts — unlike the private sector — and recommended amending state statutes to require price competition among the top three technically qualified firms, along with written procedures for evaluating when contracting is actually cost-justified. The Council estimated DOT could have saved approximately $3.7 million in FY 1980–81 through competitive selection, a figure DOT’s own Secretary acknowledged in a formal response letter included in the report.