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Obama Administration Denies Appeal for Information on Recovery.gov Contract with Smartronix

• Pro Publica
 

he Obama administration has refused, once and for all, to reveal the full details of its contract with Smartronix for a new version of Recovery.gov, the government’s stimulus information clearinghouse, as well as a sophisticated “data warehouse,”  which typically allows users to store and analyze large amounts of data.

In July, the administration agreed to pay Smartronix, a Maryland-based company, up to $18 million to create what it called Recovery.gov 2.0. The seemingly rich contract got wide attention

However, when ProPublica filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get a copy of the contract, the General Services Administration responded, a month later, by releasing a heavily redacted version. (Take a look.) Nearly half the pages in the contract’s technical proposal, which is the main body of the document, were redacted completely, and of the remaining pages, many had half or more of their content blacked out.

We appealed the GSA’s decision, noting the administration’s commitment to transparency in general, and its promises of transparency in the stimulus in particular. We also wondered whether the arguments used to defend the redactions — especially the prohibition against the release of proprietary information — appropriately covered the sweeping redactions.

On Monday, nearly eight weeks after we sent our appeal, the GSA responded, denying our appeal, citing the same arguments against the release of “proprietary or trade secret information.”

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1 Comments in Response to

Comment by TheRockster
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Psychopaths lie. Psychopaths lie even when it gets them no reward or advantage. One of the main characteristics of a psychopath is this tendency to lie, to misinform. A psychopath wants to know the truth about everybody and everything while withholding the truth from all others. Thus, truth and lies become weapons in a war of information and misinformation. Any organization, bureau, agency or company that is led by a psychopath will show these tendencies. How ironic that Obama's promises of transparency were lies. The theory is that a well-informed electorate will tend to make good decisions. This is the basis for democracy. The present administration's policy is to misinform the electorate. This is treason against the nation and the Constitution.


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