Administration turns up heat on noncompliant Recovery Act recipients

[The Straight Story]

Administration turns up heat on noncompliant Recovery Act recipients


Federal contractors and grantees that fail to file mandatory Recovery Act spending reports could lose their funding and even risk suspension or debarment from future awards, according to a White House memorandum released on Tuesday.

The presidential memo directs agencies to intensify their efforts to identify and punish prime recipients of stimulus funds that do not report back to the government on how they are spending the money.

Agencies now are authorized to begin terminating the awards of noncomplying recipients and reclaiming unspent funds, according to the memo. Contractors also risk suspension, debarment and other punitive actions.

"Any prime recipient that has failed to report is not living up to the standards set by administration and must be held accountable by all agencies to the fullest extent permitted by law," the memo stated. "Our efforts to ensure timely, comprehensive and accurate recipient reporting must succeed if we are to effectively meet the transparency and accountability objectives of the Recovery Act."

The administration also instructed agencies to give the Office of Management and Budget the names of noncomplying recipients and inform officials of any enforcement actions.

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