Two short memos just made public under the federal Freedom of Information Act are being touted by cap and trade opponents as backing their argument that the proposed legislation will severely damage the energy sector of the American economy. A one page internal Treasury Department memo written last March estimates the cost of cap and trade at between $100 billion and $200 billion a year. That sum would amount to an energy use tax of $1,761 per American household annually, according to the second document, a brief prepared by last winter's presidential transition team. A chief opponent of cap and trade, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, remarked, "The current administration claims to be the most transparent in American history, yet it's been hiding a report showing its cap and trade energy plan would cost up to $200 billion every year." The Obama administration's Treasury Department officials counter that their own memo ignores the present proposal to return emission permit revenue to consumers.
Showing posts with label Transparency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Transparency. Show all posts
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Homeland Security SBInet Construction Critiqued As Wasteful, Ineffective
A just released report by the GAO concludes that spending by the Department of Homeland Security on construction of border fencing, guard posts and surveillance facilities, under stimulus appropriations and under the Department's Secure Borders Initiative, dubbed SBInet, is both wasteful and probably ineffective in keeping illegals from crossing into the country. The report points out border fencing construction so far has cost $2.4 billion, remains incomplete, will likely cost an additional $6.5 billion to maintain for the next 20 years, and cannot be shown to have reduced illegal border crossings.
The cost of building traditional border fencing in the Southwestern desert has increased from $4 million per mile to $6.5 million per mile since 2005, mostly due to increased costs of land acquisition for fence lines, patrol posts and surveillance camera towers. Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota has questioned allocation by Homeland Security of $128 million to build upgrades at little used checkpoints along the Canadian border in his state, leading Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to put a hold on those projects pending a review of how the construction sites were selected under stimulus appropriations. House Border Security Subcommittee Chairman Loretta Sanchez said at a Congressional hearing today that "I am particularly concerned by the SBInet program's ongoing struggle with transparency and the pattern of delaying planned deployments." Speaking about Chicago based Boeing's $1.1 billion, three year contract to build SBInet, Sanchez added, "As a member of Congress who is very concerned about fiscal responsibility, it is hard for me to believe that DHS would award a contract of $1.1 billion over three years and continue to award task orders without viable results."
Even the DHS cash saving efforts under the SBInet program have gone awry. DHS used bulk steel purchases for the border barrier construction in an effort to save funds, but delays in the actual erection of the prepurchased steel have produced increases in steel storage costs which ate up most of the bulk purchase savings. Is there no critical path schedule for this work?
The cost of building traditional border fencing in the Southwestern desert has increased from $4 million per mile to $6.5 million per mile since 2005, mostly due to increased costs of land acquisition for fence lines, patrol posts and surveillance camera towers. Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota has questioned allocation by Homeland Security of $128 million to build upgrades at little used checkpoints along the Canadian border in his state, leading Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to put a hold on those projects pending a review of how the construction sites were selected under stimulus appropriations. House Border Security Subcommittee Chairman Loretta Sanchez said at a Congressional hearing today that "I am particularly concerned by the SBInet program's ongoing struggle with transparency and the pattern of delaying planned deployments." Speaking about Chicago based Boeing's $1.1 billion, three year contract to build SBInet, Sanchez added, "As a member of Congress who is very concerned about fiscal responsibility, it is hard for me to believe that DHS would award a contract of $1.1 billion over three years and continue to award task orders without viable results."
Even the DHS cash saving efforts under the SBInet program have gone awry. DHS used bulk steel purchases for the border barrier construction in an effort to save funds, but delays in the actual erection of the prepurchased steel have produced increases in steel storage costs which ate up most of the bulk purchase savings. Is there no critical path schedule for this work?
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Stimulus Spending Transparency: Illinois' Website Ranks Dead Last
President Obama promised that ordinary citizens would be able to easily find out, on line, who would be getting the $787 billion dollars in tax money appropriated to stimulate our economy in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the economic stimulus legislation. Efforts to make that dream come true, however, have become a nightmare, especially in Illinois.
Under the terms of the ARRA, each state has established an internet site citizens can visit to search for information about the stimulus money being spent in their state. A recent study on the effectiveness of these web sites in actually making information available to the general public demonstrates, however, that all 50 of them fall far short of what is possible or even reasonable in terms of making spending information available, and we should not be surprised to learn that among the 50 states, the Illinois website is the worst of all.
The recently released study by an organization known as "Good Jobs First" can be found by following this link:
http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/ARRAwebreport.pdf
The study rated each state's web information sites on a scale of 0 to 100. Separate ratings were given to each state respecting the information available for all stimulus programs on the state's main ARRA website, and the state's particular site or page for highway construction projects. Illinois received a rating of zero in both categories, making it far and away the worst state of all in terms of the lack of public information about stimulus spending, though Illinois is getting more money than any other state out of the total $787 billion.
Only four states scored above 50 points on both ratings, and the average overall score is 28.2, with a slightly higher average of 37.8 for the road construction information. Nearly all the sites fell down in terms of showing where within the state the money is being spent, or whether the spending locations coincide with regions of high unemployment or mortgage foreclosure rates. Only 18 states report how many jobs highway projects have created, and only four provide job creation data for other spending initiatives. No one really knows whether or not the economic stimulus legislation is in fact stimulating the economy or creating jobs.
The Good Jobs First report itself misses the mark in one important regard. While complaining that few of the websites even name the general contractors receiving construction projects paid for with stimulus funds, none of the sites discloses which subcontractors and material suppliers are getting the money. This level of reporting would be simple to achieve. In order to get paid on a construction project, every state requires the contractor to submit a sworn statement and lien waivers showing how much of the money the general contractor kept for itself, and how much got paid to every subcontractor and material supplier on the project. Merely by posting .pdf copies of these documents on state websites, citizens interested in the progress and efficiency of any particular project could quickly drill down to a complete list of every business that was paid any money for labor or materials on the project.
Furthermore, neither the bureaucrats nor the contractors on the project would have to write up a single document they are not already required to prepare. As far as I can tell all this information is already required to be public under the freedom of information laws in every state anyway, so no one's toes get stepped on, and no one has to do any extra work. Just run the sworn statements and lien waivers through a scanner every month, and post them on the website. Nobody even has to spend money on stamps. Mission accomplished.
This sort of reporting would be especially valuable in letting people know how much money, altogether, general contractors and trade contractor who work on projects all around the country are getting out of the $787 billion appropriations bonanza. It's easy, yet no state is doing this. And, Illinois is putting out less useful information than anyone else. Surprise, surprise.
Under the terms of the ARRA, each state has established an internet site citizens can visit to search for information about the stimulus money being spent in their state. A recent study on the effectiveness of these web sites in actually making information available to the general public demonstrates, however, that all 50 of them fall far short of what is possible or even reasonable in terms of making spending information available, and we should not be surprised to learn that among the 50 states, the Illinois website is the worst of all.
The recently released study by an organization known as "Good Jobs First" can be found by following this link:
http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/ARRAwebreport.pdf
The study rated each state's web information sites on a scale of 0 to 100. Separate ratings were given to each state respecting the information available for all stimulus programs on the state's main ARRA website, and the state's particular site or page for highway construction projects. Illinois received a rating of zero in both categories, making it far and away the worst state of all in terms of the lack of public information about stimulus spending, though Illinois is getting more money than any other state out of the total $787 billion.
Only four states scored above 50 points on both ratings, and the average overall score is 28.2, with a slightly higher average of 37.8 for the road construction information. Nearly all the sites fell down in terms of showing where within the state the money is being spent, or whether the spending locations coincide with regions of high unemployment or mortgage foreclosure rates. Only 18 states report how many jobs highway projects have created, and only four provide job creation data for other spending initiatives. No one really knows whether or not the economic stimulus legislation is in fact stimulating the economy or creating jobs.
The Good Jobs First report itself misses the mark in one important regard. While complaining that few of the websites even name the general contractors receiving construction projects paid for with stimulus funds, none of the sites discloses which subcontractors and material suppliers are getting the money. This level of reporting would be simple to achieve. In order to get paid on a construction project, every state requires the contractor to submit a sworn statement and lien waivers showing how much of the money the general contractor kept for itself, and how much got paid to every subcontractor and material supplier on the project. Merely by posting .pdf copies of these documents on state websites, citizens interested in the progress and efficiency of any particular project could quickly drill down to a complete list of every business that was paid any money for labor or materials on the project.
Furthermore, neither the bureaucrats nor the contractors on the project would have to write up a single document they are not already required to prepare. As far as I can tell all this information is already required to be public under the freedom of information laws in every state anyway, so no one's toes get stepped on, and no one has to do any extra work. Just run the sworn statements and lien waivers through a scanner every month, and post them on the website. Nobody even has to spend money on stamps. Mission accomplished.
This sort of reporting would be especially valuable in letting people know how much money, altogether, general contractors and trade contractor who work on projects all around the country are getting out of the $787 billion appropriations bonanza. It's easy, yet no state is doing this. And, Illinois is putting out less useful information than anyone else. Surprise, surprise.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Washington Post Details Transparency Beefs
An article in today's Washington Post by Alec MacGillis details Congressional beefs regarding the lack of information about stimulus spending on the Obama administration's Recovery.gov website when compared to the private sector site Recovery.org, which is using the technique I first suggested in my March 16 blog post this year:
OMB's RAT Board Chairman Earl Devaney has complained that the transparency respecting expenditure of stimulus legislation funds on the Recovery.gov website will require most of his $84 million oversight budget, and over a year to develop. Federal and state agencies can't agree on how much detail should be included in reports on construction projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
I have an idea that won't require creation of a single additional piece of paper. How about assigning a unique identifying number to each individual project funded in whole or in part by these appropriations. Create a database attaching the identifier with the brief project description already included in the front end of every government construction contract. Then, link the identifier to .pdf copies of the contractor's sworn statement and lien waivers already submitted with each monthly pay request on every government construction job.
This way, citizens interested in the progress and efficiency of any particular project could quickly drill down to a complete list of every business that was paid any money for labor or materials on the project. Furthermore, neither the bureaucrats nor the contractors on the project would have to write up a single document they are not already required to prepare. As far as I can tell all this information is already required to be public under the freedom of information laws in every state anyway, so no one's toes get stepped on, and no one has to do any extra work. Just run the sworn statements and lien waivers through a scanner every month and e-mail them to Devaney's folks in Washington, D.C. for electronic insertion into the database. Nobody even has to spend money on stamps. Mission accomplished.
Devaney is defending the failure of Recovery.gov to include more detailed information because, he says, he is "worried about overburdening small businesses," according to the MacGillis newspaper story. Someone with knowledge of public construction contracting practices ought to tell Devaney that all of this information is already required of, and reported by, construction contractors every time they apply for payment on a government project, right down to the names, addresses and amounts paid to every subcontractor and material supplier who gets any money on the job. Without these lien waivers, the general contractor won't get paid. Asking the local or state government agency to scan the lien waivers and sworn statements and e-mail them to Devaney's folks in Washington D.C. would probably require six minutes per month per project out of the busy workday of some government secretary in a state or local agency office. No additional burden is placed on either the contractor or the contracting government agency.
There are no secrets in these pay request packages, and as far as I can tell the documents are already publicly available under the freedom of information laws in every American jurisdiction, so all that is needed is forwarding them to Devaney and his staff, and posting them on Devaney's Recovery.gov website.
The failure of the folks in Washington D.C. to accept this simple truth is utterly astonishing.
OMB's RAT Board Chairman Earl Devaney has complained that the transparency respecting expenditure of stimulus legislation funds on the Recovery.gov website will require most of his $84 million oversight budget, and over a year to develop. Federal and state agencies can't agree on how much detail should be included in reports on construction projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
I have an idea that won't require creation of a single additional piece of paper. How about assigning a unique identifying number to each individual project funded in whole or in part by these appropriations. Create a database attaching the identifier with the brief project description already included in the front end of every government construction contract. Then, link the identifier to .pdf copies of the contractor's sworn statement and lien waivers already submitted with each monthly pay request on every government construction job.
This way, citizens interested in the progress and efficiency of any particular project could quickly drill down to a complete list of every business that was paid any money for labor or materials on the project. Furthermore, neither the bureaucrats nor the contractors on the project would have to write up a single document they are not already required to prepare. As far as I can tell all this information is already required to be public under the freedom of information laws in every state anyway, so no one's toes get stepped on, and no one has to do any extra work. Just run the sworn statements and lien waivers through a scanner every month and e-mail them to Devaney's folks in Washington, D.C. for electronic insertion into the database. Nobody even has to spend money on stamps. Mission accomplished.
Devaney is defending the failure of Recovery.gov to include more detailed information because, he says, he is "worried about overburdening small businesses," according to the MacGillis newspaper story. Someone with knowledge of public construction contracting practices ought to tell Devaney that all of this information is already required of, and reported by, construction contractors every time they apply for payment on a government project, right down to the names, addresses and amounts paid to every subcontractor and material supplier who gets any money on the job. Without these lien waivers, the general contractor won't get paid. Asking the local or state government agency to scan the lien waivers and sworn statements and e-mail them to Devaney's folks in Washington D.C. would probably require six minutes per month per project out of the busy workday of some government secretary in a state or local agency office. No additional burden is placed on either the contractor or the contracting government agency.
There are no secrets in these pay request packages, and as far as I can tell the documents are already publicly available under the freedom of information laws in every American jurisdiction, so all that is needed is forwarding them to Devaney and his staff, and posting them on Devaney's Recovery.gov website.
The failure of the folks in Washington D.C. to accept this simple truth is utterly astonishing.
Here's the story:
Monday, March 16, 2009
Stimulus Transparency To Cost Money And Time
OMB's RAT Board Chairman Earl Devaney announced last Thursday that the transparency respecting expenditure of stimulus legislation funds on the Recovery.gov website will require most of his $84 million oversight budget, and over a year to develop. Federal and state agencies can't agree on how much detail should be included in reports on construction projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
I have an idea that won't require creation of a single additional piece of paper. How about assigning a unique identifying number to each individual project funded in whole or in part by these appropriations. Create a database attaching the identifier with the brief project description already included in the front end of every government construction contract. Then, link the identifier to .pdf copies of the contractor's sworn statement and lien waivers already submitted with each monthly pay request on every government construction job.
This way, citizens interested in the progress and efficiency of any particular project could quickly drill down to a complete list of every business that was paid any money for labor or materials on the project. Furthermore, neither the bureaucrats nor the contractors on the project would have to write up a single document they are not already required to prepare. As far as I can tell all this information is already required to be public under the freedom of information laws in every state anyway, so no one's toes get stepped on, and no one has to do any extra work. Just run the sworn statements and lien waivers through a scanner every month and e-mail them to Devaney's folks in Washington, D.C. for electronic insertion into the database. Nobody even has to spend money on stamps. Mission accomplished.
I have an idea that won't require creation of a single additional piece of paper. How about assigning a unique identifying number to each individual project funded in whole or in part by these appropriations. Create a database attaching the identifier with the brief project description already included in the front end of every government construction contract. Then, link the identifier to .pdf copies of the contractor's sworn statement and lien waivers already submitted with each monthly pay request on every government construction job.
This way, citizens interested in the progress and efficiency of any particular project could quickly drill down to a complete list of every business that was paid any money for labor or materials on the project. Furthermore, neither the bureaucrats nor the contractors on the project would have to write up a single document they are not already required to prepare. As far as I can tell all this information is already required to be public under the freedom of information laws in every state anyway, so no one's toes get stepped on, and no one has to do any extra work. Just run the sworn statements and lien waivers through a scanner every month and e-mail them to Devaney's folks in Washington, D.C. for electronic insertion into the database. Nobody even has to spend money on stamps. Mission accomplished.
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