CNBC
New Flaws in Stimulus Job Creation Claims
written by By: Brain A. Shactman
Wednesday, November 18 2009 at 3:34 PM ET
A new report from the Government Accountability Office concludes that the Obama administration's recent claims about the number of jobs saved or created by stimulus spending are flawed.
Just how many jobs have been created and the accuracy of those numbers have been the subject of intense media attention, scrutiny and criticism since the White House touted the Recovery Board’s report that claimed approximately 640,329 jobs had been created or saved through contracts, grants and loans in the stimulus package.
On Thursday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) will issue its mandated bimonthly report on the Recovery Act, and the focus will be squarely on the jobs issue, addressing the accuracy criticisms, while also offering recommendations on how to improve the system of reporting from the more than 100,000 recipients of stimulus funds.
The GAO says the numbers are inaccurate and provides scenarios where both understating and overstating the figures may have occurred. The GAO report, however, does not include revisions or changes to the administration's job claims so far and the GAO does not plan to issue its own number.
That has not deterred Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), The Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, from being a vocal critic of the whole process. Last week, Issa wrote Earl Devaney, who oversees Recovery.gov, and asked if the employment numbers could be certified as accurate and auditable.
Devaney could not certify them.
“It’s a startling admission that he hasn’t even been provided with a list of who should have reported, which means he can’t know who didn’t report, which just adds fuel to the argument that the whole effort at transparency has failed,” Issa said in a statement on Wednesday. “The Administration has provided inaccurate data, missing data, data that might be missing but they don’t even know for sure and they should be a part of Thursday’s hearing to answer for these discrepancies.”
Despite the early admission of possible inconsistencies and the potentially under-funded vetting process, there has been an onslaught of reports of gross inaccuracies—from phantom Congressional Districts receiving money to dozens of jobs created by the purchase of a $1,000 lawnmower.
They are right there for all to see at Recovery.gov, and those with the patience to pore through all the data have found some holes, for sure.
And so has the GAO. Here are some other issues uncovered by the GAO in the report:
New Flaws in Stimulus Job Creation Claims
written by By: Brain A. Shactman
Wednesday, November 18 2009 at 3:34 PM ET
A new report from the Government Accountability Office concludes that the Obama administration's recent claims about the number of jobs saved or created by stimulus spending are flawed.
Just how many jobs have been created and the accuracy of those numbers have been the subject of intense media attention, scrutiny and criticism since the White House touted the Recovery Board’s report that claimed approximately 640,329 jobs had been created or saved through contracts, grants and loans in the stimulus package.
On Thursday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) will issue its mandated bimonthly report on the Recovery Act, and the focus will be squarely on the jobs issue, addressing the accuracy criticisms, while also offering recommendations on how to improve the system of reporting from the more than 100,000 recipients of stimulus funds.
The GAO says the numbers are inaccurate and provides scenarios where both understating and overstating the figures may have occurred. The GAO report, however, does not include revisions or changes to the administration's job claims so far and the GAO does not plan to issue its own number.
That has not deterred Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), The Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, from being a vocal critic of the whole process. Last week, Issa wrote Earl Devaney, who oversees Recovery.gov, and asked if the employment numbers could be certified as accurate and auditable.
Devaney could not certify them.
“It’s a startling admission that he hasn’t even been provided with a list of who should have reported, which means he can’t know who didn’t report, which just adds fuel to the argument that the whole effort at transparency has failed,” Issa said in a statement on Wednesday. “The Administration has provided inaccurate data, missing data, data that might be missing but they don’t even know for sure and they should be a part of Thursday’s hearing to answer for these discrepancies.”
Despite the early admission of possible inconsistencies and the potentially under-funded vetting process, there has been an onslaught of reports of gross inaccuracies—from phantom Congressional Districts receiving money to dozens of jobs created by the purchase of a $1,000 lawnmower.
They are right there for all to see at Recovery.gov, and those with the patience to pore through all the data have found some holes, for sure.
And so has the GAO. Here are some other issues uncovered by the GAO in the report:
- It found that 3,978 recipients reported jobs created or saved without actually receiving ANY Recovery Act funds.
- It also says that 9,247 reports showed the receipt of money but NO JOBS were created or saved.
- Some of the problems stem from the fact that recipients do the reporting, and there aren’t sufficient resources to vet the reports. There is also a strong chance that recipients simply made mistakes submitting the data.
- In addition, there have been over 100 allegations of fraud surrounding Recovery Act funds. More than half are at various investigative phases, while 41 have been dismissed.
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