Open government transparency efforts are falling short, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) told Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra during a March 23 hearing.

"Had you put the same effort into USAspending.gov as you've put into everything else, we'd be a lot further down the road right now, wouldn't we?" Coburn lectured Kundra, reports nextgov. Kundra testified during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee on federal financial management, government information, federal services and international security.

USAspending.gov collects government award data and was mandated by a law co-sponsored by Coburn and then Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in 2006. A recent Government Accountability Office report faulted the site for failing to include subaward data and found numerous data "inconsistencies."

Pressed on when OMB will improve the site, Kundra said upgrades will occur "shortly" and cited technical difficulties with the web platform, the nextgov article states.

A recent survey of 40 federal CIOs found some concern that federal transparency efforts lack clarity. "There is too much trial and error in current initiatives," several CIOs told survey authors.

One surveyed CIO said supporting policy is lacking. "We are moving fast without a policy framework," the CIO said.

For more:
- check of the nextgov article
- read the GAO report, "Implementation of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006" (.pdf)
- read an account of Kundra's recent fact-finding trip to the West Coast