Feds list agencies not tracking stimulus funds

By Jeremy Redmon

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Federal officials publicly identified today thousands of recipients of federal stimulus funds who did not report how much money they have received and what they are doing with it as required by law.

Now posted on recovery.gov, the list -- which includes numerous organizations based in Georgia -- does not identify the sizes of their stimulus contracts, loans or grants or describe their projects.

But it does say many tried to file their reports but could not do so because of technical problems. Others missed deadlines or were confused about the reporting requirements, the list says.

Officials are hoping that posting the list will encourage others to get their reports in as required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which runs recovery.gov, also outlined today several new measures it hopes will improve the accuracy of the information on its Web site. For example, recipients of federal stimulus funds will be permitted to continually correct errors in the information they send the federal government about their stimulus awards. Previously, recipients had a limited period of time to make corrections after they filed their reports.

“This change, perhaps our most important, should vastly improve the quality of recipient data,’’ Earl Devaney, the board’s chairman, said in a news release today.