Recovery Act Contractors Must Report Spending Contractors who receive money from the Recovery Act must register in order to file reports that are required by the law. Beginning Oct. 1 any entity that receives $25,000 or more in Recovery Act funds must file quarterly reports at FederalReporting.gov, the website established by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to track spending. Contractors must report how much money they have received and spent, the scope and timetable of each project, and the number of jobs created. The information will be available to the public at Recovery.gov, the Recovery Board’s main website. The first reports are due by Oct. 10. With at least 150,000 contract, grant and loan recipients expected to file, the board is urging everyone to register and file early. “The registration process itself is no more difficult than buying a product online,” the board said in a statement, estimating that it will take about five minutes. There are penalties for filing false information. To register, contractors will need their CCR number and DUNS number. Because the information will be publicly available, it can cause unexpected problems. That was illustrated in July when the online Drudge Report pulled data from Recovery.gov suggesting that the Agriculture Department had paid $1.2 million for two pounds of ham. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack hastily put out a statement explaining that the department’s $1.2 million purchase of “2 pound frozen ham sliced” referred to the size of the package, not the price per pound. “I am increasingly aware that when we unleash this transparency in October, and the American people get to see how their money is being spent, not everybody is going to be happy,” Recovery Board Chairman Earl Devaney told Government Executive magazine. “It struck me that everybody understands the positive aspects of transparency but not that many people want to admit there could be a downside of transparency. The question is: When the American people see it, how are they going to react? I don’t know, and I can’t predict that. I would just say it’s going to be an interesting fall.” For information about the registration and reporting processes, go to Recovery.gov or call 877-508-7386.