Recovery.gov Won't Warn Users

The independent board overseeing Recovery.gov is rejecting calls for a disclaimer on the stimulus-tracking Web site to indicate that some job creation figures are inaccurate.

Officials contend that the site already informs users that job totals are "as reported by recipients" -- and that the board has not been shy about saying that stimulus fund recipients were bound to make mistakes.

"There are no penalties for filing false or inaccurate information" in the Recovery Act, said Ed Pound, spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. "This is something that Congress did not choose to write into the law."

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Committee, asked in a Nov. 13 letter that the board "commit to incorporating some kind of qualifying information such as an asterisk or footnote to accompany the presentation of this information, warning visitors to the Web site that the information is not accurate and auditable."

Pound responded that board Chairman Earl Devaney in his columns on Recovery.gov and elsewhere in the media has repeatedly said some recipients would make mistakes in their award reports. And "we knew that some people would not bother to report," he added.

Administration officials on Tuesday acknowledged on the White House Web site that some stimulus recipients punched in the wrong congressional district, neglected to file and inserted typos that could mean "as many as 5 - 10 percent of the reports or 5 - 10 percent of the totals are wrong (and we don't think it is that high)."