Despite a stated policy of transparency, the main government watchdog over the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program has redacted key information from its contracts with two outside consultants assisting with the oversight.
The Office of the Special Inspector General for TARP, headed by former federal prosecutor Neal M. Barofsky, blacked out portions of the contracts before posting them on its website.
The inspector general's office in January hired accounting firm Deloitte and Touche to help track and analyze data related to the TARP program.
Although the posted contract shows the deal is worth as much as $4.13 million, sections detailing the firm's hourly rates and the potential fees for a second year of work are redacted. So is information about the firm's designated contract manager and the names of key personnel working on the assignment.
The inspector general's office also hired Concentrance Consulting Group this month to provide "audit support services." That contract, which has a maximum value of $441,556, is similarly redacted so as to make it impossible to know the hourly rates being charged.
Without knowing how much the taxpayer is being charged per hour, it is impossible for outsiders to determine whether these are good deals.
The redactions follows identical decisions by the Treasury Department to black out or omit parts of its own contracts with the law and accounting firms advising it on the implementation of the TARP program.
Although the hourly rate information also was redacted from the Treasury Department contracts, many of its documents still showed the names of the key employees assigned to the job.
That information is helpful in determining whether the people representing the outside contractors have any potential conflicts of interest.
The redactions by the inspector general's office appear to contradict the spirit of its own transparency policy, as well as the spirit of oversight in general.
On the webpage featuring its contracts with Deloitte and Touche and Concentrance, the inspector general's office notes its "goal of promoting transparency in the administration of TARP-related programs includes acting as transparently as possible in its own activities, including the contracts that it enters into with outside vendors and other Governmental agencies to obtain goods and services."
The redactions in the contracts awarded by the inspector general's office are accompanied by handwritten notations citing the exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act under which the redactions were made.
It should be noted, however, those sections simply permit redactions. They do not require them.
The Office of the Special Inspector General for TARP, headed by former federal prosecutor Neal M. Barofsky, blacked out portions of the contracts before posting them on its website.
The inspector general's office in January hired accounting firm Deloitte and Touche to help track and analyze data related to the TARP program.
Although the posted contract shows the deal is worth as much as $4.13 million, sections detailing the firm's hourly rates and the potential fees for a second year of work are redacted. So is information about the firm's designated contract manager and the names of key personnel working on the assignment.
The inspector general's office also hired Concentrance Consulting Group this month to provide "audit support services." That contract, which has a maximum value of $441,556, is similarly redacted so as to make it impossible to know the hourly rates being charged.
Without knowing how much the taxpayer is being charged per hour, it is impossible for outsiders to determine whether these are good deals.
The redactions follows identical decisions by the Treasury Department to black out or omit parts of its own contracts with the law and accounting firms advising it on the implementation of the TARP program.
Although the hourly rate information also was redacted from the Treasury Department contracts, many of its documents still showed the names of the key employees assigned to the job.
That information is helpful in determining whether the people representing the outside contractors have any potential conflicts of interest.
The redactions by the inspector general's office appear to contradict the spirit of its own transparency policy, as well as the spirit of oversight in general.
On the webpage featuring its contracts with Deloitte and Touche and Concentrance, the inspector general's office notes its "goal of promoting transparency in the administration of TARP-related programs includes acting as transparently as possible in its own activities, including the contracts that it enters into with outside vendors and other Governmental agencies to obtain goods and services."
The redactions in the contracts awarded by the inspector general's office are accompanied by handwritten notations citing the exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act under which the redactions were made.
It should be noted, however, those sections simply permit redactions. They do not require them.
published March 31, 2009, 0 Comments
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