Dear Bureaupat,
When
government hands out money in any of its spending programs, it also costs
money to make sure that the funds are being spent
properly... and then even more money to monitor the results. How much of the $800 billion stimulus package is being spent to oversee how the money is being spent?
Dear Oversighted,
You are absolutely right, it does cost money to run government programs. While the exact number for all oversight of all the funds has not been determined, the stimulus bill did
contain $330.5 million for oversight. The stimulus package also offers President Obama his first
opportunity to put into practice his campaign pledge to demand greater
accountability of federal spending.
You're probably asking yourself, so what are we getting for the $330.5 million?
Here's what I can tell you: Of the $787 billion in the economic stimulus plan, $25 million was provided to the Government Accountability Office (GAO),
the non-partisan Congressional watchdog agency; another $84 million to an
accountability board within the administration; and $221.5 million to
the inspectors general who serve as department watchdogs.
|
Recipient
|
Amount
|
Purpose
|
|
Accountability & Transparency Board
|
$84 million
|
Coordinating oversight and issuing quarterly reports
|
|
|
Government Accountability Office
|
$25 million
|
Auditing and investigating stimulus spending
|
|
|
Inspectors general
|
$221.5 million
|
Overseeing each agency's share of stimulus spending
|
|
Source: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Specifically, the GAO
will use the money to hire about 100 accountants, lawyers, economists
and policy analysts to root out and prevent waste and fraud by the
federal, state and local agencies spending the money, according to GAO
spokesman Chuck Young.
Vice
President Biden said he would meet once a week with Cabinet
secretaries to discuss how the stimulus money is spent and each
department has an office of inspector general that serves as a watchdog
over spending. Sometimes a special inspector general's office is
created to monitor large programs.
As
you can see, on the surface billions are not being spent on the
oversight, but $330.5 million is a pretty large chunk of change and
only 0.04 percent of the entire package. But it's also true that there clearly are more government staff at the federal, state
and local levels overseeing the dispersion of these funds.
Yours in Gov,
Bureaupat
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