Thousands of stimulus reports missing, resulting in potential undercount of jobs created

By Michael Grabell, ProPublica

Eagle Peak Rock and Paving created and saved 32 jobs thanks to an $8million federal stimulus contract to repair Glacier Point Road inYosemite National Park.

But you won't find that on Recovery.gov, the government's Web site for tracking stimulus money.

Youalso won't find the eight employees hired by Owensboro-Daviess CountyRegional Airport in Kentucky, or the 46 jobs claimed for some $65million in grants awarded to the Louisiana Department of SocialServices.

The three are among thousands of recipients who didn'tfile the required reports detailing what they did with stimulus moneyand how many people they hired or retained.

With mounting criticismover the accuracy of jobs numbers, the White House budget office isscrambling to identify recipients who didn't report. Vice President Joe Biden said last week that the missing information is unacceptable. And the government'sstimulus watchdog, Earl Devaney, who oversees Recovery.gov, promised topost a list of non-filers in an effort to embarrass them into complying.

Thestimulus act provided no explicit consequences for those who didn'treport, though agencies can cut off recipients from future federalfunding. Devaney has called on Congress to add penalties, such asfines.

The missing reports stand to addthousands of jobs to the current tally of 640,000 created or saved bythe stimulus. Tracking down the missing reports is also critical forthe Obama administration to meet its pledge of unprecedentedtransparency with stimulus money.

In an effort to show thepublic how taxpayer dollars are spent, Congress required all recipientsof stimulus money -- including contractors, local governments andnonprofits -- to file quarterly progress reports on a government Website. The reports must contain about 100 pieces of information,including how the recipients have spent the money, how many jobs ≠-- andwhat types -- they have created or saved, and how far along the projectis.

The first report was due Oct. 20. After the deadline,recipients are locked out of the system and can no longer file reportsor make changes until the next reporting period, in January.

Tofind out who didn't comply, we compared the reports on Recovery.govwith all the contracts, grants and loans that federal agencies havepreviously said were paid for with stimulus money. Even aftereliminating common mistakes, such as different names or amounts, morethan 2,500 recipients appear to have never sent in their requiredreports, accounting for at least $2 billion in unreported stimulusmoney.

The White House budget office said the number of missingreports could be even higher. It estimated that recipients have failedto file up to 10 percent of the reports on Recovery.gov. Currently, thesite lists 131,000 reports and $159 billion in overall stimulusspending.

"If there are thousands of people who haven't filedreports, that sheds some doubt on the total," said John Irons of theEconomic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank focused on laborissues. "There are people who are trying to throw mud on the wholething. This would add fuel to that fire."

Several stimulusrecipients -- including Eagle Peak, the Owensboro airport and Louisianasocial services -- said they tried to file but were beset by technicalglitches. They told similar stories about having trouble uploading thereport, trying to resolve the issues with government agencies and thenbeing locked out of the system when the deadline passed.

"Thefirst time we submitted the report, there were some missing boxes andit got sent back," said Kareen Duvall of Las Vegas Paving Corp. "When Iwent back to make corrections and resubmit through the federal Website, it wouldn't let me submit. The time had expired."

But thegovernment watchdog that runs Recovery.gov, officially named theRecovery Accountability and Transparency Board, isn't sympathetic topeople who had technical problems. Spokesman Ed Pound said federalagencies hosted numerous Web seminars leading up to the deadline. Theboard extended the deadline by 10 days and had 60 people answeringtechnical questions by phone and Internet chat.

"You have totake the time and follow the instructions to do it," Pound said. "Idon't think that's asking too much of people when they're receivinghundreds of thousands of dollars in money from the federal government."

Devaney, the oversight board's chairman, told us he plans to use thebully pulpit of the Recovery.gov Web site to shame non-filers.

"Every opportunity I have to embarrass somebody for not reporting, I'm going to take advantage of that,' he said.

Recipientswho didn't report range from agencies as large as the LouisianaDepartment of Social Services, with a $1.2 billion annual budget, totiny Blue Ridge, Ga., tucked into the Chattahoochee National Forest,with just six employees at city hall.

Trey Williams, spokesmanfor Louisiana social services, said the agency realized it had aproblem with its contractor registration number back in August andtried for months to resolve the issue with the Recovery Board helpdesk, the White House and the IRS.

"When we couldn't file thereport by the deadline, we went ahead and submitted the report via hardcopy, and were told it had to be submitted online and could not besubmitted again until it opened again for the next reporting period,"in January, he said.

Blue Ridge's city clerk, April Grizzell,said she filed the city's report on $12.9 million in loans to increaserural water service. But the computer system bounced it back while shewas out with swine flu, and by the time she returned, it was too late.(Here are its reports, which the city sent us.)

Recovery.govis also missing reports from the entire government of American Samoa,which received a blanket waiver from the White House after a tsunamistruck the island two days before reporting started. Pat Galea'i,American Samoa's stimulus czar, said the island has created or savedhundreds of jobs.

While recipients reached by ProPublica saythey didn't intentionally skip filing, the Recovery Board is on thelookout for signs of people who may be hiding something.

BobWhitmer, the director of the Owensboro airport, said he was veryconcerned about missing the deadline because of the airport's previousproblems with the federal government. It has been cited for pooradministration of grant funds in 10 of the past 11 annual audits,according to a report this summerby the U.S. Department of Transportation's internal watchdog. ButWhitmer said he, too, had computer problems, and the help desk neverresponded to an e-mail.

"There was a lot of effort there," he said. "We were trying to make sure we did this right and got our information in on time."

Inaddition to technical problems, there also seems to be some confusionabout when the reporting requirement kicks in. Many contractors toldProPublica that they didn't file the reports because they hadn'treceived any money yet and work hadn't begun.

For contractors, asigned contract doesn't necessarily signify the start of the project,said Mark Weisensee of the James W. Fowler Co., which is building a $16million fish hatchery for an Indian tribe in Washington state. Thecompany still has to finalize plans and go back to the agency forapproval to actually begin work. And competing biddershave a window to protest the contract and put the job on hold, which iswhat happened with the fish hatchery.

But the White House budget office said recipients are required to file as soon as the contract is signed.

Still,the federal government should do more to help contractors with thereporting process, said Ken Worthan of Eagle Peak Rock and Paving, thecontractor on the Yosemite road project.

He said he went onlineto fill out his report but it kept bouncing back with errors. Aftercalling to resolve those problems, he filed the report and got aconfirmation that it had been accepted. But he then needed a code toupload it. He said he requested one but never got it.

"We'retrying to report the information they requested as best as we can,"Worthan said. But "if they're not getting the information, it's notgoing to be real accurate. They're not going to be able to sit in frontof everybody and say, 'Well, this is how many jobs we created.'"

ProPublica's director of computer-assisted reporting, Jennifer LaFleur, contributed to this report.