Is $9.5 million too much to pay to create a website that tracks government stimulus spending in detail? How about an additional $8.5 million to maintain that site after its creation, through January 2014? The Recovery Accountability and Transparency board, which is tasked with tracking federal stimulus funding through the Recovery.gov website, does not think that too steep a price. Spokesman Ed Pound, told me earlier today that Recovery 2.0 will be a highly functional website well worth the $18 million contract the government has awarded Smartronix for its development, and he rejected any suggestion that the government is overpaying.
“I would personally describe that as nonsense,” said Pound. “We are not interested in wasting the taxpayers’ money.” The new Recovery.gov site has to be in action by October 10, and it’s being built from scratch.
Although no comparison is perfect, there are two websites that operate with similar missions and functions to the planned “Recovery.gov 2.0.” Both were assembled for significantly less than $18 million. The first is USASpending.gov, which tracks all federal loans, loan guarantees, grants and contracts by state, zip code, and Congressional District. The site is also searchable by government agency, by contractor, and by the nature of an individual contract (competitive or non-competitive, for example). USASpending.gov gives details down to the individual transaction level for contracts going all the way back to 2000.
The Office of Management and Budget bought the software for that site from the group OMB Watch for $600,000. OMB Watch had originally developed the software for its own website, FedSpending.org.
Then there is Recovery.org, a privately funded site launched in March by the Onvia corporation. Although far less detailed than USASpending.gov, Onvia’s site claims to be equally comprehensive, tracking all government contracts — not just the 2% that are funded by the stimulus package that President Obama signed in February. Recovery.org includes contracts that have been proposed, offered, amended and awarded. According to company sources, the site cost only $10,000 to develop in its original, spartan form. Even with its new interactive maps that help search contracts by state, county and city, the site has reportedly cost the company less than $100,000 so far.
