Enlarge www.recovery.gov The government website provides access to stimulus spending data and allows for the reporting of fraud, waste and abuse PUBLIC OPINION PUBLIC OPINION From Truman to Obama, see each president's ratings with USA TODAY's approval tracker. WASHINGTON  Of the $814 billion in government stimulus spending, there's $18 million that could forever change the way government spends money. That's how much the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board spent to create Recovery.gov, the website that tracks where the government's stimulus money goes. The website turns 1 year old today. While it's had a number of publicized flaws, the site already has become the template for how the government will collect and report on its spending. CHART: Accounting for stimulus spending On Friday, the federal government will begin requiring recipients of non-stimulus money to report to USAspending.gov where that money's going — just like the Recovery.gov does for stimulus funds. "For good or bad, the needle has been moved by Recovery.gov," says Gary Bass, founder of OMB Watch, a non-profit group that tracks federal spending. The requirement to make federal spending transparent started before the stimulus. In 2006, Congress required that the government create USAspending.gov — but efforts to get federal recipients to report where the money went fell almost two years behind schedule. "What we were not able to successfully do prior to Recovery Act is to develop a solution to collect that information beyond that first payment," says Danny Werfel, controller of the Office of Federal Financial Management. "Now, we're drilling down to the next level." The emphasis on subcontractor spending has even some transparency advocates questioning how much data are necessary — and are actually useful. Recovery.gov only reports spending two levels deep. So if a federal block grant program allocates money to states, which then distribute it to cities, there's no data on which contractors received money from cities. That's a problem, says Tom Lee, director of Sunlight Labs, which uses federal spending data to make its own websites, because it's all but impossible to learn if politically connected contractors are getting work. Still, Lee acknowledges that there's a danger in going "too far down the rabbit hole, asking people to report every cup of coffee bought on a construction project." An even bigger issue, Lee says, is the quality of the data. Indeed, Recovery.gov has had missteps: •When the first projects were reported a year ago, several news organizations — including USA TODAY — found the recipient-reported information rife with errors, like a Texas housing authority misreporting 450 jobs created by a $26,000 roofing project that employed six people. Recovery Board Chairman Earl Devaney later testified to Congress that the data were "riddled with inaccuracies and contradictions." "I think it was a little naïve to pursue that kind of an effort. It's not how you can measure the economic impact," Lee says. •There was a mixup over so-called phantom congressional districts, in which recipients of legitimate stimulus awards sometimes attributed them to incorrect — and sometimes non-existent — congressional districts. Devaney says checks have now been installed to make sure the congressional district matches the ZIP code. He says those kinds of tools weren't done initially because of a misplaced concern that recipients wouldn't report if they got too many error messages. •And just this month, a report found that only seven of 29 recipients examined filled out the number of jobs correctly. In one case, a recipient overestimated the number of jobs created by 3,200, by putting the amount spent in the jobs field. Education Inspector General Kathleen Tighe says at least 12 recipients overestimated the number of jobs created, while five underestimated. The report also looked at stimulus recipients of the Health and Human Services and Labor departments, and the National Science Foundation. While many of the errors were the result of clerical errors, the report said the administration's own guidance — such as an inconsistency in how subcontractor jobs are reported — "may result in misleading information being posted to Recovery.gov." Werfel says the government is learning by experience and is improving the quality of the data. He says making the data publicly available is another positive step. Bass, of OMB Watch, agrees. He says the website has made "an indelible mark on transparency." Still, he's blunt about its technical shortcomings: "The download is terrible. There's too much flash and not enough substance." The $18 million contract, he says, is "outrageous." That's how much Smartronix, the Maryland company that built Recovery.gov, could get under its five-year contract. Devaney says Recovery.gov has paid $9.5 million and will pay the full amount only if it picks up options in the contract to improve the website. Only three of the 59 qualified government contractors bid on the contract, Devaney says, because contractors worried about the scrutiny that would come from the White House and Congress if they didn't meet the deadline. Money spent on transparency is a smart investment that could pay for itself by reducing fraud in federal contracting, Devaney says. "You have millions of people who go on this website and look at things. If I were going to steal money, I'm not going to steal this money," he says. The Recovery Board — and its website — expire in 2013. Devaney says he won't be there, but he hopes the work continues. "What I think should happen is to keep this entity, and maybe take the word 'Recovery' off the door, and use it to make all government spending as transparent as the stimulus money is," he says. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more