Government transparency
has always been a huge deal to President Barack Obama – or at least it seemed
that way, since he began pushing for it before he even entered the Oval Office
and posted
a note on whitehouse.gov by midnight the day after his inauguration to
remind the public of its importance.
But half a year
after the lofty announcement, the federal government is already being beaten at
its own game. The competition is called Recovery.org – which sounds a lot like the feds' own Recovery.gov. But Recovery.org comes from the private sector.
Following the passage of the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the information-services company Onvia launched Recovery.org and, frankly speaking, it’s kicking the
government’s arse.
Why would a private company take up a task that the federal
government has already promised to do?
Simple: the company actually benefits
from offering the service, using it to put small and mid-sized firms in touch
with local, state and federal agencies that need some sort of contract work
done. Not to mention that the .gov site is falling woefully behind: according
to USA Today, it won’t have details on contracts and grants until October, and
may not even be complete until the program is halfway over next spring.
And the best part?
Government officials have been spotted using the privately-owned site, which is
open for free to anyone who wants to use it, said Onvia CEO Mike Pickett.
With its own Internet
program so miserably behind, maybe the federal government should give up on Recovery.gov
and save its energy for making sure that the $787 billion stimulus plan
actually does what it was set out to do, before someone else beats them to it.
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