Recovery Board Chair: Government Needs Consistent Federal Data Standards

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a blog posted today on Recovery.gov, Chair Kathleen S. Tighe of the Recovery Board describes how consistent data standards would lead to better data quality across the government and improved oversight of taxpayer dollars.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100702/RECOVERYLOGO)  

She recounts how the government has failed to develop a data standard system for many years, noting that President Lyndon B. Johnson issued a report to Congress on the government's management of automatic data processing in 1965.

"For nearly a half century, the federal government has failed to develop a data standard system that would permit data sharing among agencies, save lots of money, and vastly improve the quality of information, including details on how the government spends your money," Tighe wrote in her blog.

Tighe said the Recovery Board has completed 13 successful reporting periods without major blunders. She said the Office of Management and Budget developed guidelines defining standard data elements that all recipients of stimulus funds had to report. The Board also uses only one electronic system—FederalReporting.gov—to collect the spending data of recipients.

She said the federal government should develop a similar centralized system for collecting data for all government awards. "The ideas are out there,'' Tighe said. "What is needed now is action."

For more information contact:

Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

SOURCE Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board

RELATED LINKS
http://www.recovery.gov