Audit: PA Not Ready for Stimulus Oversight

Auditor General Jack Wagner believes Pennsylvania is ill-suited to provide transparency and oversight on the stimulus money coming to the state in a letter he sent to the federal Government Accountability Office.  See stories in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the Patriot News.

Governor Rendell’s spokesman expressed outrage as such accusations, touting the state recovery website – which I have to say I’m not impressed with – and the stimulus oversight commission.  Curiously, the Auditor General is not on the stimulus oversight commission, which may be a sore spot, but it is also pretty much his job description to evaluate how taxpayer money is being spent., whereas the people on the oversight commission are largely the spenders, or the recipients, of the money.

On the bright side, the private sector has developed a user-friendly website, which allows users to search for project by state, county, and city at Recovery.org.