In February 2009, President Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus package into law. That is a lot of money to start handing out and so, to make sure it gets into the right hands and is properly spent, Obama also created the Recovery Act and Transparency Board and appointed Earl Devaney as head of the oversight board.

President Obama also put Vice President Joe Biden in charge of overseeing the states’ spending of stimulus money. This was an important step for two reasons. Number one, after witnessing the payment of outlandish bonuses to banking and insurance executives with the bank bailouts in the previous year, Americans would have to be assured that part of the recovery money wouldn’t also be misused in such a blatant way; and number two, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that without tight oversight, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that some of the funds would be wasted and/or abused, making it that much harder the next time around to get backing for any more stimulus bills.

In addition to creating the Recovery Act and Transparency Board, Obama set up the Recovery.Gov Track the Money website that is accessible to every American so that they can check in periodically and see exactly how the money is being spent. Obviously, the Obama administration understands the importance of accountability because as Joe Biden says, “If we don't get this right, folks, this is the end of the opportunity to convince the Congress that anything should go to the states.”

In addition to oversight at the federal level, governors of each state receiving funds from the stimulus bill are appointing task forces, working groups and even “czars” to ensure there is no fraudulent spending of the funds. You can look up your state and see if it has developed such an accountability website. The site for the State of Ohio, Ohio.gov/Recovery is a good example of what is needed to keep government “honest.” When looking for a site for your particular state, be sure to always look for a website that ends in .gov as that will be the indicator that you are looking at an official state government site.

Before setting up the websites and receiving the stimulus money, state and local representatives from every state spent a day in Washington last year learning from administration and agency officials just what is necessary to track the large amounts of money that would be flowing into their communities for various projects. They were warned by Devaney that there would be no tolerance for policy spending mistakes, and although there would be no money earmarked for state and local auditors, he asked that each state watchdog group design some type of uniform method to collect data so that spending and results could be properly measured.

Many in attendance at the meeting were quite aware of the probability of some fraud and misspending of government funds, but were also willing to work with the government to make sure that this program was properly carried out as best they could handle it.

Now, as we have reached the one year milestone of the passage of the stimulus package, we are beginning to see some results coming out of the various states as well as federal government programs that have received funds. As we head further into the future and see more funds released for projects such as high-speed rail systems in several of our larger cities, we should all take the time occasionally to check not only the government website but also our individual state websites to keep an eye on what is being spent and how. After all, it is our money at work and we have every right to know how it is being spent.

Sources:
CNN Politics.com “State, local watchdogs to keep eye on recovery spending,” by Sasha Johnson, 3/20/09
Recovery.gov Track the Money