The Connecticut State Employees Association is wondering why there was no fanfare when Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed the "clean contracting'' bill on Saturday that was finally passed last month on its fifth try.

The union members have been pushing for the bill for years, decrying work by "incompetent consultants'' and private contractors on jobs that they described as the Interstate 84 "Little Dig contractor fiasco'' and the "Datagate personal ID breach'' in Ohio by Accenture, a well-known private company that is based in Bermuda and is being sued by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

"This was historic stuff'' on contracting, said Matt O'Connor, communications director for CSEA, SEIU Local 2001. "This is earth-shattering stuff here. This is in response to what put her predecessor in federal prison, after all.''

Jay Doody, a transportation engineer at the DOT, said, "This law goes a long way to reform the state's policy of 'outsourcing without oversight.' ''

Rell's spokesman, Christopher Cooper, said the governor will have a news release ready on the signing, as planned, as the first order of business on Wednesday morning.

"The governor signed it and is proud to have done so,'' Cooper said.

---Christopher Keating