The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued instructions for all federal agencies receiving funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). These instructions require an extremely high degree of public accountability and transparency. Here are some items that I found interesting:
- Starting March 3rd, agencies must submit weekly reports providing a breakdown of funding, major actions taken to date, and major planned actions.
- No later than May 1st, agencies must provide their “Agency Recovery Plan” that describes both broad recovery goals and the agency’s coordinating efforts.
- Starting immediately, agencies must ensure all funds provided by the Recovery Act are clearly distinguishable from non-Recovery Act funds in all agency financial systems, business systems (i.e., grant and contract writing systems), and reporting systems.
- To facilitate transparency and reporting, agencies should establish a page on their existing website dedicated to the Recovery Act (i.e., www.agency.gov/recovery), which will link to Recovery.gov and will provide a single portal for all agency-specific information related to the Act.
- Within one week of issuing this guidance, agencies must establish a dedicated page on their website for recovery efforts.
I do not think that Social Security is all that secretive an agency, but it seldom makes the effort to tell the public what it is up to. At least for the ARRA funds, Social Security will have to make that effort. It will be more paperwork for some at Social Security, but there will be people paying attention to that paperwork.
Social Security does not have its "Recovery" page up yet, but these instructions were just issued.
Social Security does not have its "Recovery" page up yet, but these instructions were just issued.
2 comments:
"I do not think that Social Security is all that secretive an agency..."
Yeah, right. The AM that came out yesterday for dealing with Stimulus payment questions from the public was make "SENSITIVE - NOT TO BE SHARED WITH THE PUBLIC". Figure that one out. LOL
It is kind of strange that a message to staff about what to tell the public is kept a secret. Having read the AM, there is no good reason for it to be considered sensitive.
It includes 10 points about the stimulus payments that answer questions people want to know (who gets a payment, when it will be issued, how it will be made, etc.). It also mentions that they placed a recorded message on the 800# that says, “The President recently signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This Act provides for the one-time payment from the U.S. Treasury Department of $250.00 to individuals who get Supplemental Security Income or adults who get Social Security benefits. The $250.00 payment will be issued in May 2009. No action will be needed by you to receive this one-time payment. Our telephone agents and field office staff do not have any additional information at this time regarding the Act."
Why tell the public that SSA has no information? Who are they kidding?
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