“The pandemic oversight committee on Tuesday launched an online tool to track the federal government’s contract spending.”
“The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, established by the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, is one of the various entities overseeing the government’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic and is composed of 21 inspectors general. The relief package appropriated an unprecedented amount of money, so there has been increased pressure to ensure the funds are not misspent. As of Tuesday, the federal government has committed to 7,474 contracts with 4,115 vendors and spending of $15.9 billion, according to ProPublica.”
“’Users can download the entire dataset to conduct their own analysis by examining contracts by category – for example medical services and equipment, janitorial services for government buildings, and personal protective equipment and safety supplies for government workers,’ said the committee. There is also ‘an interactive map for users to explore the total amount of contract spending by state and county.’”
“The committee is using numbers from the Federal Procurement Data System to track the spending and will update the tracker weekly. The committee noted that contract documents aren’t usually made public because of their proprietary information, but individuals can try to obtain them through Freedom of Information Act requests.”
“In its first report issued last week, the committee identified financial management as one of the top management challenges federal agencies could face during their response efforts…” Read the full article here.
Source: Pandemic Oversight Committee Launches Contract Spending Tracker – By Courtney Bublé, June 23, 2020. Government Executive.
