Transparent Like A Brick...

$162 million in stimulus funds not disclosed

WASHINGTON — Recovery.gov promised transparency on how the government spends every dollar of stimulus money, but there's $162 million the website doesn't disclose.

Recipients of 352 federal stimulus contracts, grants and loans have failed to report how they spent the money, the status of their projects or how many jobs were funded, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Now, granted, given the size of the stimulus package overall, $162 million is barely a rounding error, but the fact remains that we were told, over and over, just how transparent and open the Øbama administration was going to be. They weren't going to keep things hush-hush like those meanies in the Bush administration; no, they were going to have everything broadcast on C-Span for the entire country to see! There would be no closed-door meetings in this administration, no sirree; everything would be out in the open and available to every American.

And giant talking broccoli stalks will come mow your lawn for free.

This is one of my favorites:

In May, then-OMB director Peter Orszag instructed agencies to take action against repeat offenders within 20 days. That action could include investigations for fraud and suspensions from all future federal contracts.

It's unclear whether that's happening.

May. It's now October. By my reckoning, that's five months. Last time I checked, five months > 20 days, even by government standards. Why do we not have a full and complete account of every stimulus recipient that has missed reporting on their projects for more than one quarter? The rules are clear - organizations that have been awarded stimulus funds for approved projects are to provide quarterly reports. That there is not a clear plan in place to immediately suspend funding for any non-reporting agency is bad; that literally hundreds of stimulus fund recipients have missed successive quarterly reporting - and only one has been dropped - is frightening.

It's our money. We deserve to know where every dollar is going.

That is all.

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