Tuesday, April 28, 2009

...then again your definition may vary

From Recovery.gov:

“We’re bringing transparency and accountability to all areas of government”


From BailoutSleuth:
Earlier this month, the Treasury Department quietly hired three law firms and a consulting firm for advice on restructurings and potential bankruptcies in the auto industry.

Treasury did not issue a press release announcing the hirings, even through the contracts with the law firms were among the biggest yet for work on the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. The deals drew scant coverage beyond trade publications.

Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP and Haynes and Boone LLP got six-month contracts worth as much as $8.59 million each, or $25.8 million total.

Reports that the Treasury Department has directed Chrysler LLC to prepare a bankruptcy filing might explain what those firms have been doing for the past few weeks. But the lack of full disclosure about the contracts raises additional questions regarding the openness and transparency of the TARP initiative.

And employee pay and compensation would appear to be a one-way street as well…
In addition to keeping the awards out of the spotlight, Treasury deleted the hourly rates it is paying the firms from copies of the contracts that it posted on its web site. In at least one instance, it also blacked out the names of key personnel on the assignments.

Treasury has routinely redacted that information from the public copies of its agreements with outside contractors on TARP. Without those details, it is impossible for the taxpayers who are paying for the TARP efforts to know whether they are getting a good deal.


Whether its CIA interrogation memos or TARP documents this Administration is proving itself to be redaction-mad - a once time-honored tradition for 2nd term Presidents has been warp-drived back to the future for this 3 month-in Administration.

Transparency, indeed!

1 comment:

Road Dawg said...

We finally found Algore's hockey stick. It comes in the form of government power-grab.

As much as we oppose this, you've got to respect the sudden seize of power while under the mask of our condition of instability and danger.

The belief that without a SAVIOR, social, economic, political harm is imminent. And this is propagated by a complicit press.

Leaving a spell check error for Mr. Lloyd,
Road(Kill)'Dawg
Leaving retarded liberals by the wayside!