Despite the best efforts of an administration which campaigned on promises of government transparency, the website which was set up to provide ordinary citizens with raw data regarding the spending of nearly a trillion dollars in economic stimulus appropriations still comes up far short of the finish line. To begin with, the RAT [Recovery Accountability and Transparency] Board just signed a contract to spend $18 million more on development of the Recovery.gov website, yet copies of that very contract have not yet been posted on the site.
Recovery.gov receives an average of 2,300 hits a minute by citizens, reporters, and others interested in the details of stimulus spending, and about 200,000 government contracts funded by stimulus appropriations have already been awarded. I suppose it may be a bit unfair to criticize the RAT board for being slow in posting the details of contracts awarded by other agencies, but it does seem it should be able to put up a link to a .pdf copy of the one contract it has signed with Smartronix, Inc. for improvement of its own website. Any of you technically literate folks out there who can explain why they haven't done this yet?
Recovery.gov receives an average of 2,300 hits a minute by citizens, reporters, and others interested in the details of stimulus spending, and about 200,000 government contracts funded by stimulus appropriations have already been awarded. I suppose it may be a bit unfair to criticize the RAT board for being slow in posting the details of contracts awarded by other agencies, but it does seem it should be able to put up a link to a .pdf copy of the one contract it has signed with Smartronix, Inc. for improvement of its own website. Any of you technically literate folks out there who can explain why they haven't done this yet?
