The Reality of Recovery Reporting

OMB distributed initial guidance to agencies today on how to implement the stimulus package. We’ll have a full story up in a few hours but I wanted to share some initial thoughts, particularly on agencies’ reporting requirements for Recovery.gov.

-- Agencies must establish policies for posting to the ‘Announcements’ section of the site in press release form in addition to providing the financial data and summary descriptions of all major actions.

-- Recovery.gov will not just consolidate existing data; it requires more extensive reporting than existing regulations. For example, under the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, agencies are only required to report information above $25,000 to USASpending.gov. The stimulus act requires reporting on ALL funding, although guidance on reporting these small actions is till forthcoming.

-- OMB is stressing the importance of accuracy in Recovery.gov data. Agencies are expected to complete reviews of the information before it is posted on the site and an information quality point-of-contact will be listed on each agency’s Recovery.gov page.

-- For contracts over $500,000, agencies must provide a summary of the contract or order, including a description of the required products and services, to be posted online.

Points like these litter the 62-page memo. Some of the recovery reporting, I imagine, will just entail extending the parameters of existing requirements, but some will cost significant time and effort. Writing press releases and reviewing financial data takes manpower; do agencies have it? The other unknown is the extent to which the White House and OMB can come down on agencies for complying with these reporting guidelines. It’s one thing if agencies are dragging their feet to avoid being transparent, it’s quite another if they don’t have the capacity to meet the requirements.