Is Recovery.gov over the top with its $18 million contract?

Criticism began as soon as Recovery.gov announced last week it is spending $18 million to overhaul its website. But Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which manages the site and tracks the use of stimulus funds, stepped forward quickly to say that critics are ignoring just how hard it will be to rebuild the government's largest website, which will be used to let the government track how stimulus money is being spent.

In an interview on Friday with the National Journal Group, Devaney said the site must be rebuilt in a matter of months, and security controls and interconnectivity must be put in place with a reporting system that can handle an enormous amount of data. Maryland-based Smartronix, Inc., won the contract from a GSA-led panel of experts. The contract starts out small, calling for $9.5 million in spending by January 2010; options boost the value of the work to $18 million by 2014.

We think that's a very small amount of money for greater transparency. After all, when billions are being directed to all sorts of projects to end the recession and rebuild the economy, doesn't the government have the right to keep track of everything?

For more on rebuilding recovery.gov:
- check out this nextgov.com article