Posted on 07/10/2009 6:59:53 AM PDT by Iron Munro
Well, Recovery.gov (or is it Recvoery.gov?) needs more than nifty diagrams of money that may or may not have already been spent, so the tech-savviest administration ever went looking for a vendor. It succeeded in getting one to redesign the site for a mere $18 million:
The new Web site promises to give taxpayers more information about where their money is going than the current version of the site.
“Recovery.gov 2.0 will use innovative and interactive technologies to help taxpayers see where their dollars are being spent,” James A. Williams, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, says in a press release announcing the contract awarded to Maryland-based Smartronix Inc. “Armed with easy access to this information, taxpayers can make government more accountable for its decisions.”
The contract calls for spending $9.5 million through January, and as much as $18 million through 2014, according to the GSA press release.
“We are pleased that another major milestone has been achieved," Earl E. Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, says in the press release. “We thank the GSA for its assistance and look forward to working with Smartronix."
So, it could only cost $9 million, with the option to spend up to $18 million. Raise your hand if you think the government will end up on the low end of that estimate. No one? All right. Moving on. Sunlight Labs, which bid on the job, notes that we have no idea yet what we're supposed to be getting for this $18 million. Just like the stimulus! Maybe someday we can pay $13 million for a site that will track the $18 million-dollar tracking site redesign, a year after the fact. Twitter is lousy today with discussion of the pricetag.
The changes to the site are necessary to live up to the promises Obama made about transparency when passing the stimulus:
“With a recovery package of this size comes a responsibility to assure every taxpayer that we are being careful with the money they worked so hard to earn. And that's why I'm assigning a team of managers to ensure that the precious dollars we've invested are being spent wisely and well...
And we expect you, the American people, to hold us accountable for the results. And that's why we created Recovery.gov, a Web site so that every American can go online and see how this money is being spent and what kind of jobs is being created, where those jobs are being created. We want transparency and accountability throughout this process.”
Of course, because the necessary changes will be taking place after more than $100 billion has been spent, and during a summer when the administration has promised to increase the speed of spending (Although who knows by how much? Not the White House!), there's no way to tell how much of that money has been lost to waste or fraud and how much has been spent wisely.
Or, is there? At Recovery.org, a site run by a private company whose job it is to track government spending and contract processes, there's real-time tracking of stimulus spending. They normally collect and sell such information to businesses looking for government contracts, but decided to chart the stimulus because they realized they could deliver what Obama had promised.
The company's CEO Mike Pickett testified to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform yesterday about the site, which is frequently used by U.S. government agencies themselves to track stimulus spending in the absence of a useful iteration of Recovery.gov:
Reporting spending 100 days after the spending occurs does not prevent spending that is fraudulent, wasteful and abusive. Near real-time reporting is possible and should be required...
Recovery.gov should track [stimulus] spending while it is actively in the contracting process for the reasons I have mentioned above. I have heard people say that it can’t be done. And there is a natural transparency barrier. The market is highly fragmented: there are more than 89,000 Federal, State, Local and Education entities across the country and an estimated 20,000 of these will receive a portion of funds from [the stimulus].
It may not be the most perfect tool for tracking spending that will ever be created—and Pickett himself admits it has some limitations—but it certainly accomplishes far more of what Obama envisioned than Recovery.gov, and it's doing it contemporaneous with stimulus spending. The Obama administration could create the most complete site for tracking government spending ever known to mankind, but it won't do much good if it comes into existence right after all the stimulus money is already spent.
When I heard Pickett speak in May, he estimated his company had spent about $20,000 building their Recovery.org site. They were able to keep it cheap because they already have the infrastructure and expertise for such tracking, and he added it'd would take more money to maintain throughout all the spending.
But let's say it cost $1 million total. What's costing the Obama administration so much? Does slathering everything in Gotham font really cost $17 mill these days?
I work for a software company which does higher ed software and for 2 million you get a whole software ecosystem which includes software for your financial aid, fundraising, a web portal, admininstration software, a CRM, etc. A freaking website for 18 million which does nothing....OMG that is worse than the 800 dollar toilet seat.
We’re growing our economy by building super cool websites. Whoo-Hoo!
Here you, President Obama:
RECOVERY.GOV
Dear American Public,
We are happy to present to you this new recovery.gov website to show you exactly how the recovery money is being spent.
The following graphic will illustrate clearly how we are using your hard-earned tax dollars:
We hope you find our new website interesting and informative.
-Barry
So 0bama is justifying spending this money to “keep his promise for transparency”. What a friggin’ LIAR.
Why do I feel like all this stimulus/tarp/ bailouts are just a massive ponzi embezzlement scheme for the libs.
None of this money is making where it should go. Where is it going???
In a word, no.
This is all part of the Dems JOB!JOBS!JOBS! goal of their stimulus plan.
They fear layoffs in the IT industry will turn this potent elite voting bloc against them. By spending massive amounts of money in DEM IT strongholds, they will have assured themselves control of the commanding heights of technology for the future.
Damn, the more satiric I got the more it seemed real.
LOL! You get the Webbie Award!
The Contractor shall conduct two, 3-hour, Humor in the Workplace programs that will discuss the power of humor in the workplace, the close relationship between humor and stress, and why humor is one of the most important ways that we communicate in business and office life. Participants shall experience demonstrations of cartoons being created on the spot. The contractor shall have the ability to create cartoons on the spot about BPD jobs. The presenter shall refrain from using any foul language during the presentation. This is a business environment and we need the presenter to address a business audience.
This solicitation was issue by none other than...the Department of Treasury, Bureau of the Public Debt
Just think how many $6K VBH alligator clutch bags that would buy! /sarc.
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