Agencies urged to fix technical mistakes in stimulus spending reports

The Obama administration wants federal agencies to pay closer attention to administrative and technical errors in quarterly spending reports filed by recipients of Recovery Act funds.

Agencies should focus on eliminating duplicate or unlinked reports, inadvertent deactivation of reports or technical issues relating to a record identifier, according to March 22 guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget.

"These matters may significantly impact the reliability of the information reported," wrote OMB Director Peter R. Orszag. "However, they should not implicate the compliance status of the recipient involved. In some cases these reporting issues may have been outside the control of the recipient. In other cases, the recipient may have chosen a reasonable approach to reporting the data but the approach resulted in technical challenges for the federal agency or the [Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board] to review and aggregate such data."

Under a policy the board implemented in January, stimulus fund recipients now can correct mistakes in their award reports continually on FederalReporting.gov, the collection Web site for reports.

At the conclusion of each quarterly corrections period, agencies must conduct a data quality review of the changes, highlighting significant reporting errors, technical mistakes and material omissions, Orszag said.

In addition, agencies will be required to submit each quarter to OMB a detailed list of all Recovery Act awards. For the next reporting period, ending March 31, this transmission must occur by March 28. For future reporting periods, agencies will have five business days before the end of the reporting quarter to submit the list.