Obama's 'Transparent' Stimulus Plan: Is It?

Aug. 3, 2009 — -- President Barack Obama said the government's $797 billion stimulus program needs to be transparent -- but the plans for the Web site that is supposed to let people follow the money are somewhat less than that themselves.

When the government's General Services Administration released a mass of documents explaining the site redesign for Recovery.gov, as ABC's Rick Klein reported in The Note, large sections were redacted, or blacked out.

The White House started Recovery.gov to help people track where the money is coming from, and where it is being spent to jump-start the economy, end the recession and bring down the unemployment rate.

The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which oversees the spending and the Web site, concedes it is no simple task to show how such massive amounts are being handled. In July it announced the site would be redesigned -- for $9.5 million and, perhaps, as much as $18 million in the next five years.

"Recovery.gov must be the direct link between the citizen and the Recovery," says Smartronix, Inc., the Maryland firm that is lead contractor for the site redesign, in its redesign proposal. "Citizens, no matter what their level of technical or political expertise, must be able to deeply engage with the Recovery and monitor its progress in their local communities and on a national level."

But scroll down through the document, and sections titled "Design Concept," "Site Navigation," and "Technical Approach" are largely blacked out. Come to the "Conclusion" and you will find that it is gone entirely.

Edward Pound, spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, said, "The material redacted was business-sensitive material, proprietary information."

Another person familiar with the redesign said it was unusual for the government to publish as much as it did on the contract with Smartronix. This person, asking not to be named, said the government was in a difficult position, trying to honor President Obama's pledge of openness without giving away proprietary information about Smartronix.

In a previous conversation, Pound said last month the money to beef up the site will be well spent.

"This thing has a lot more to do than designing a good-looking Web site," he said. Much of the money will be for the infrastructure behind the site, not for its appearance online, he said.

On Oct. 10 every recipient of government stimulus money will have to report what they have, and how they are spending it, he said.

"We have to have the capability to receive that information and post it," he said.. "And we need the infrastructure to support all of that. They are going to be filing very detailed information -- who the key officers are on every project, what they're paid, and so forth. And you'll have to be able to see that, very quickly."