UPDATED! Government Website Shows Recovery Act Allocations – Recovery.gov

UPDATE

According to USA Today, details are skimpy on the government’s recovery.gov website:

WASHINGTON — Although President Obama has vowed that citizens will be able to track “every dime” of the $787 billion stimulus bill, a government website dedicated to the spending won’t have details on contracts and grants until October and may not be complete until next spring — halfway through the program, administration officials said.

Recovery.gov now lists programs being funded by the stimulus money, but provides no details on who received the grants and contracts. Agencies won’t report that data until Oct. 10, according to Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which manages the website.

Devaney told a House subcommittee Tuesday that it will be a challenge to have the site ready to present spending data in five months. He said after the hearing that the board doesn’t have enough data storage capacity, for example.

Read the rest here.

And according to the Washington Times, Congress is too busy to show up for oversight hearings on where taxpayer money is going, and the government is expecting citizens to do the oversite. HUH?

So just who’s tracking that $787 billion in taxpayer money that President Obama and the Democrat-led Congress are doling out? You are. Or you’re supposed to be, anyway.

“We are, in essence, deputizing the entire American citizenry to help with the oversight of this program,” said Rep. Brad Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology’s subcommittee on investigations and oversight.

So, too, said Earl Devaney, the ex-cop who’s now chairman of the Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board, charged with tracking the torrent of cash now pouring out of federal coffers.

“I’m going to have millions of citizens to help me,” he said, comparing run-of-the-mill Americans to inspectors general, the high-ranking officials charged with ferreting out waste and abuse in federal agencies……

……………Mr. Devaney, though, said his board – made up of 10 IGs – has a dual mission: “First, the board is responsible for establishing and maintaining a Web site.” Oh, and second, it’s supposed to “help minimize fraud, waste or mismanagement.”

While Mr. Miller and the panel’s top Republican were there, only Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, Pennsylvania Democrat, also came along to the hearing. Absent were Democratic Reps. Steven R. Rothman of New Jersey, Lincoln Davis of Tennessee, Charlie Wilson of Ohio, Alan Grayson of Florida and Bart Gordon of Tennessee. Republican Reps. Brian P. Bilbray of California and Ralph M. Hall of Texas also skipped the session.

Read the rest here.

(Original post starts here:)
We thought you might like to know…

Recovery.gov is the main vehicle for finding out how taxpayer dollars are being spent to rejuvenate our economy. As we embark on this unprecedented journey of transparency and accountability, there are bound to be lots of questions from both citizens wanting to track where their money is going and government agencies trying to provide that detailed information.