DENVER - As members of Congress continue to scrutinize the Obama administration's data on job creation and stimulus spending, officials Wednesday offered some answers about the millions of dollars apparently spent in congressional districts that don't exist.
It may be too late for the administration to undo the damage done to its credibility on stimulus spending, but the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board says the errors are due to mistaken information submitted to the federal government from businesses and agencies receiving stimulus money -- not evidence of fraud or lack of oversight.
"We understand the public is skeptical in this economy about all this money that's being spent, and that's fine," said Myung Oak-Kim, who tracks Colorado stimulus spending for Gov. Bill Ritter's office. "But this money is going where it's supposed to go. This is not some sort of fraud. It is simply human error on the part of the recipients."
According to Kim, out of more than 1,900 businesses or agencies receiving stimulus money for projects in Colorado, around 50 -- roughly, one percent -- mistakenly put down the wrong congressional district when submitting tracking data to the government.
For example, the $33,195 from the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development did, in-fact, go to the Holly Housing Authority in Holly, Colo., even though the HHA reported itself to be in Colorado's phantom 64th congressional district.
"These are mistakes being made by the recipients," Kim said. "It's not the White House or some agency that's going in and fiddling with the numbers."
However, the skepticism goes beyond any bogus congressional districts for many Republicans and many Americans -- to job creation numbers that even many Democrats believe are inflated.
"Everything from the Obama administration seems to err on the side of inflating the numbers for the purpose of showing what the stimulus is doing," said Republican Rep. Mike Coffman. "I don't know what the American people can believe from this administration when it comes to the economy.
"This is either gross incompetence or gross fraud," Coffman said. "I think it's probably both."
But, Kim says, in some cases, it's neither.
"A lot of these are out-of-state businesses that listed their congressional district in their state," she said. "And that's correct. There are two spaces where it asks for the congressional district. There's the congressional district associated with the company or recipient of the funds. And there's the 'POP congressional district', which stands for 'place of performance', where the job is taking place."
That explains why the military contractor APM listed "42" in the column for its home congressional district -- the company is based in California's 42nd district. In the column for POP, they've listed "5", which represents Colorado's 5th congressional district, the home of Shriver Air Force Base, where the project was taking place.
"One percent of the files being wrong may not mean much to the Obama administration," Coffman said. "But, it's not a small number when you're talking about a $787 billion stimulus package. It's not a small amount to the taxpayers of this country."
It may be too late for the administration to undo the damage done to its credibility on stimulus spending, but the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board says the errors are due to mistaken information submitted to the federal government from businesses and agencies receiving stimulus money -- not evidence of fraud or lack of oversight.
"We understand the public is skeptical in this economy about all this money that's being spent, and that's fine," said Myung Oak-Kim, who tracks Colorado stimulus spending for Gov. Bill Ritter's office. "But this money is going where it's supposed to go. This is not some sort of fraud. It is simply human error on the part of the recipients."
According to Kim, out of more than 1,900 businesses or agencies receiving stimulus money for projects in Colorado, around 50 -- roughly, one percent -- mistakenly put down the wrong congressional district when submitting tracking data to the government.
For example, the $33,195 from the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development did, in-fact, go to the Holly Housing Authority in Holly, Colo., even though the HHA reported itself to be in Colorado's phantom 64th congressional district.
"These are mistakes being made by the recipients," Kim said. "It's not the White House or some agency that's going in and fiddling with the numbers."
However, the skepticism goes beyond any bogus congressional districts for many Republicans and many Americans -- to job creation numbers that even many Democrats believe are inflated.
"Everything from the Obama administration seems to err on the side of inflating the numbers for the purpose of showing what the stimulus is doing," said Republican Rep. Mike Coffman. "I don't know what the American people can believe from this administration when it comes to the economy.
"This is either gross incompetence or gross fraud," Coffman said. "I think it's probably both."
But, Kim says, in some cases, it's neither.
"A lot of these are out-of-state businesses that listed their congressional district in their state," she said. "And that's correct. There are two spaces where it asks for the congressional district. There's the congressional district associated with the company or recipient of the funds. And there's the 'POP congressional district', which stands for 'place of performance', where the job is taking place."
That explains why the military contractor APM listed "42" in the column for its home congressional district -- the company is based in California's 42nd district. In the column for POP, they've listed "5", which represents Colorado's 5th congressional district, the home of Shriver Air Force Base, where the project was taking place.
"One percent of the files being wrong may not mean much to the Obama administration," Coffman said. "But, it's not a small number when you're talking about a $787 billion stimulus package. It's not a small amount to the taxpayers of this country."
