Pandemic Response Accountability Committee Launches Contract Spending Tracker Tool

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, created under the CARES Act to oversee the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, released a tool today to track how relief packages were dispersed. The committee also released a June 2020 report on challenges agencies are facing when handling the CARES Act implementation and pandemic response.

According to reports from ProPublica, the federal government has committed to 7,474 contracts with 4,115 vendors and spending $15.9 billion thus far as part of the coronavirus response.

The new online tool allows individuals to track the total amount of contract spending by state and county as well as categories of spending.

“Users can download the entire dataset to conduct their own analysis by examining contracts by category – for example medical services and equipment, janitorial services for government buildings, and personal protective equipment and safety supplies for government workers,” said the committee.

To track spending, the committee is using numbers from the Federal Procurement Data System. While specific contract documents are not made public due to their proprietary information, the committee did note that individuals can obtain that information via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

In the first report from the committee, issued last week, the committee identified financial management as one of the top management challenges federal agencies could face during their response efforts.

“Even in non-pandemic times, issues ranging from a lack of reliable financial data to deficiencies in agency internal controls limit the ability of inspectors general to fulfill this mission,” said the report. “These concerns are heightened by substantial increases in the amount of money allocated for certain programs and the expedited timetable for distribution of CARES Act and other pandemic-related funds.”

Other common areas of concern among agencies include grant management, information technology security and management, and protecting health and safety while maintaining effective operations.

The online tool will be updated with additional contract values and categories weekly. The committee is composed of 21 inspectors general from across government.