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More strangeness on $18 million Recovery.gov redesign contract
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
07/16/09 7:08 PM EDT
Just when you think it couldn't get any weirder, something else pops up concerning that $18 contract issued by the federal government last week to redesign Recovery.gov - the web site that is supposed to show people how their $787 billion of tax money is being spent on economic stimulus.
Seems that a Washington, D.C. advertising agency known as Syneractive is going to get a piece of the contract for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Web 2.0 work on the project. It's not clear if this is as a sub-contractor to Smartronix, the Southern Maryland defense firm that won the overall contract last week from the General Services Administration (GSA), which oversaw the bidding and award process.
In addition to the $18 million bottom line for the redesign project, the contract also has generated significant attention in the mainstream media and the Blogosphere as a result of The Examiner's report that the three top Smartronix executives have contributed a total of $19,000 to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer since 1999. Smartronix is located in Hoyer's district. A Hoyer spokesman said her boss had no role in determining who won the $18 million contract and called the campaign contributions coincidental to the contract award.
The Syneractive selection prompted some less-than-flattering commentary on the Internet, with a blogger at the Tribble Ad Agency site offering this scathing assessment of the D.C. firm's own web site:
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