Miscounting of stimulus jobs cuts two ways

[The Straight Story]

Miscounting of stimulus jobs cuts two ways
By Robert Brodsky [e-mail] November 10, 2009

Confusion over Office of Management and Budget stimulus reporting guidelines has led to under-counting -- in addition to already reported over-counting -- of jobs saved or created by the Recovery Act, according to an analysis by Government Executive.

OMB instructed prime recipients of stimulus funds to provide the public with dozens of data elements on spending, including a brief description of the types of jobs that they and any subcontractors had saved or created. In a separate column, recipients were to enter the total number of jobs saved or created -- a figure that in theory should match the information in the narrative column.

But, a closer look at recipient data released on Oct. 30 on Recovery.gov showed that information in the two columns often did not line up. Repeatedly, recipients of grants and contracts discussed jobs created or saved in the narrative column but failed to include them in the total.

For example, Native American Services Corp., a small business in Idaho, reported that an Army parking lot repair contract helped it retain five jobs. In the next column, however, the company said it had not saved any jobs. Similarly, Eagle Aviation Services and Technology of Reston, Va., said a $70,000 contract with the Army Corps of Engineers allowed it to retain eight workers who otherwise would have been laid off. But, the company put a zero in its jobs saved column.

And, it's not just small businesses that appear to be confused. URS Corp., one of the largest government contractors, reported it created 18 jobs by hiring a small disadvantaged business to assist with a liquid waste project. But URS did not record those workers in the jobs figure column.

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