Discrepancies on government Web site call into question stimulus spending

How the federal stimulus money is being spent can be tracked at Revovery.gov. The purpose of the web page is to help with government accountability. Specifically, "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 makes it clear that taxpayer dollars spent under the Recovery Act will be subject to unprecedented transparency and accountability." The question to ask is whether this is working. A couple of days ago ABC News reported the following

"Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says. There's one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts." Read more...

Arizona is not the only state that has reporting issues. According to Geoff Palay at the South Carolina Policy Council, South Carolina has also reported spending money in districts that do not exist. If the government wanted transparency with this spending maybe they are getting it, but that does not mean we as taxpayers will like what we see.