October 22, 2009 By Matt Williams
Citizens and government officials who are awaiting a clean accounting of the federal government's stimulus package at the end of the month could be left wanting, at least initially. Published reports that some preliminary stimulus data are inaccurate or incomplete could mean there will be some lingering problems with data quality.
If anything, the number of errors might increase in the short run, according to OMB Watch senior policy analyst Craig Jennings. The nonprofit tracks the Office of Management and Budget and advocates for transparency.
"There will likely be even more errors given the sheer volume of reports (7,000 on Oct. 15 vs. 105,000 on Oct. 30), but reports in subsequent data releases in January [2010] and beyond should be of higher quality," he wrote in an e-mail to Government Technology.
Data from more than 47,000 awards -- the combined total of grants, loans and contracts -- were sent in as of Oct. 10., according to a posting on Recovery.gov, the Web site that's releasing information about the stimulus.
The 10-day grace period concluded Oct. 20, capping the first quarterly reporting window for recipients of funding from the federal government's $787 billion stimulus package, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. State and local government agencies were required to upload their data on expenditures and jobs creation to FederalReporting.gov.
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Based off of discussions of the Digital Communities Large Jurisdiction Chief Information Officer (CIO) Working Group, this white paper aims to answer the question, "In today's economic, political and business environment, what constitutes a successful relationship between government and industry?" Cause for Optimism identifies and clarifies the issues that separate government and industry, and begins to find an answer to the question necessary for both to enjoy a successful and prosperous future.
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