Obey rebukes administration over stimulus job reports
By USA TODAY's Congress Team
November 18, 2009
There have been a several stories in recent weeks about the number of stimulus jobs being overstated in reports filed by grant and contract recipients. USA TODAY's Matt Kelley and Brad Heath had one such story on Nov. 3 that showed, for example, how a public housing authority reported creating 450 fulltime jobs with just $26,174 in stimulus funds. In fact, the reporters discovered, only six jobs were created.
These kinds of reporting problems has prompted Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., to issue a rare Democratic rebuke to the administration. Late yesterday, Obey put out a statement "reacting to new reports of inaccuracies on recovery.gov," which is the website maintained by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board.
“The inaccuracies on recovery.gov that have come to light are outrageous and the administration owes itself, the Congress, and every American a commitment to work night and day to correct the ludicrous mistakes," Obey said in his statement. “Credibility counts in government and stupid mistakes like this undermine it. We’ve got too many serious problems in this country to let that happen."
.... Obey, who ended his statement with this emphatic demand:
“We designed the Recovery Act to be open and transparent and I expect the the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, who oversees the recovery act web site and data to have information that is accurate, reliable and understandable to the American public. Whether the numbers are good news or bad news, I want the honest numbers and I want them now.”
http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2009/11/obey-rebukes-administration-over-stimulus-job-reports.html-----------------------------------
David Obey Slams Obama Administration for Errors in Reporting Stimulus Job Gains
by David Sessions
November 17, 2009
The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee slammed the Obama administration Tuesday for "outrageous" errors in data that led to inflated job-creation numbers on recovery.org, the Web site that reports on the president's stimulus program. The Hill reports that, due to "unrealistic" reports from about a dozen federal agencies, the site incorrectly reported more than 600,000 jobs had been saved or created by the stimulus. An ABC News report outlined some of the site's inaccuracies on Monday.
"The inaccuracies on recovery.gov that have come to light are outrageous and the Administration owes itself, the Congress, and every American a commitment to work night and day to correct the ludicrous mistakes," Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.) said in a statement Monday. "Whether the numbers are good news or bad news, I want the honest numbers and I want them now."
Obey was a major player in writing the stimulus bill, and said he was dismayed to see it failing to meet the goal of complete transparency.
DAVID OBEY
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/17/david-obey-slams-obama-administration-for-errors-in-reporting-st/