Earl Devaney says he can’t certify whether the number of jobs ‘created or saved’ by stimulus funds is accurate. Official: Can't certify job stats

The chief federal oversight official for the stimulus program said in a letter Wednesday that he can’t certify whether the number of jobs “created or saved” by stimulus funds is accurate.

Recovery Board Chairman Earl Devaney was responding to a request for information by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In a letter to Issa dated Nov. 17, Devaney wrote, “Your letter specifically asks if I am able to certify that the number of jobs reported as created/saved on Recovery.gov is accurate and auditable. No, I am not able to make this certification.”


The Obama administration claimed that it saved or created at least 1 million jobs this year. But errors in the stimulus job creation data have become a political hot potato, as the administration has been hit by news reports revealing that data it posted on recovery.gov includes jobs allegedly created in congressional districts that don’t exist.

However, Devaney said, by posting the information about stimulus spending on the Internet for every American to see, the administration will be able to correct any errors in the data as they are pointed out. “I am confident that we have established a process that will lead to increasingly higher levels of accuracy in the future,” he wrote.

Issa reacted to Devaney’s comments with outrage Wednesday morning. “This just confirms what we already know, that the Administration cannot certify info on recovery.gov as accurate and auditable,” Issa said. “The man charged with providing accountability for stimulus spending cannot verify the accuracy of the job reports that the Administration – filtered through OMB – have provided him.”

Liz Oxhorn, White House Spokesperson for the Recovery Act, said, “It’s no surprise that critics who voted against the Recovery Act want to raise doubts about the number of jobs it has created. While the data may be imprecise, the overall conclusion that can be drawn from it is irrefutable - and the direct job count is just one part of the Recovery Act's overall results.”

Rep. David Obey, (D-Wis.), also blasted the errors in a statement this week: “The inaccuracies on recovery.gov that have come to light are outrageous and the administration owes itself, the Congress, and every American a commitment to work night and day to correct the ludicrous mistakes," the House Appropriations Committee Chairman said in a statement.

“Credibility counts in government and stupid mistakes like this undermine it,” Obey said. “We’ve got too many serious problems in this country to let that happen.”

Recovery Board spokesman Ed Pound said the fictitious congressional districts were simply the result of fund recipients entering the wrong information on their reports to the government. “This is simply human error,” he said. “It doesn’t affect the jobs created or saved, and it doesn’t affect our ability to provide oversight.”

“This is the downside to transparency,” he said. “There’s been nothing like this in the government before. When you have this kind of access to raw data, there’s going to be errors.”



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