Red Flags and Flares When Fundees Report Whatever They Want To

We can never say the Government Accountability Office did not warn us that there be rocks here:

In the GAO’s opinion, the system for making sure that stimulus dollars are spent properly simply isn’t up to snuff. The report goes on to note that state auditors—whose job is to make sure that public dollars are appropriately spent—don’t have the funding to exercise their own responsibilities under the stimulus bill ....

The GAO reported that “significant questions have been raised about the reliability of the data on www.USAspending.gov,” which is mandated by law to track financial information about who gets federal funds. The GAO points out that because the numbers on the site come from those receiving funds, the quality of their data can’t easily be verified.