Group upgrades federal spending Web site
New feature will allow outside users to incorporate search results into their own computer applications.
A Washington advocacy group has enhanced a Web site devoted to information on federal spending with new features to improve high-level summaries of contract and grant activities and to make it easier for outside programmers to incorporate the spending data into their own applications.
The nonprofit OMB Watch launched the changes to its FedSpending.org Web site on Thursday. The site was updated with the latest federal contract and grant data, made more accessible to popular Internet search engines and given an improved home page, according to the group.
Adam Hughes, OMB Watch's director of federal fiscal policy, said the group expanded a summary view that proved popular with users after the initial launch last October. That view, which previously was only available for search results on an individual company with federal contracts, now also makes a simple, high-level view the default for searches by agency, state or congressional district.
The grants portion of the site previously did not offer a summary view; now users can see a roll-up by recipient, place of performance or agency. On both the grants and contracts sides, the summary includes a graph illustrating trends since fiscal 2000, the first year for which the system contains data.
There are widely acknowledged problems in the quality of federal contract and grant information, and Hughes said the group has received several calls per week from individuals and companies since the site launched, some raising concern about the accuracy of particular data points.
OMB Watch does not alter the data displayed through FedSpending.org, Hughes said, because it is pulled from government databases that the group does not control. "We've tried to connect people who have problems with the data with the correct area of the government to get it resolved," he said.
Both OMB Watch and officials with the Office of Management and Budget, which is scheduled to launch a similar Web site next year as mandated under the 2006 Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, have said that one goal of directing more public scrutiny to the data is to increase agencies' accountability for reporting accurate information.
The upgrades to FedSpending.org also include the addition of an option to produce search results in a format called XML that can be used with computer programming languages. Hughes was not aware of any inquiries to date about applications that outside individuals or groups want to develop, but said the feature would serve people with particular interests or needs. "The best way to get around the disappointment that is inevitable with some users is to let people who really have a vision do [the development] themselves," he said.
The group plans to release two additional rounds of site upgrades this year, possibly including an interactive map feature, inflation adjustments and the capability to link search results with census data.