A website to track spending from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) shows that Colorado has received millions in funding or grants in zip codes that are erroneous or don’t belong in Colorado.

Recovery.gov provides a breakout of all Colorado spending by zip code.

For example, the breakout shows that zip code 87420 has received

$5,267,621 in ARRA funds. That zip code corresponds to Shiprock, New Mexico. Also, the Colorado breakout shows over $1.5 million spent in the state in zip code 50901. That zip code not only is not in the state, but the USPS also says the zip code does not exist at all.

The reporting website has recently come under criticism for listing funds as being spent in congressional districts that did not exist.

Cross-checking the zip code breakout against the website’s reporting map also generates errors as well. The breakout claims approximately

$2.4 million spent in zip code 80113, saving or creating 40 jobs.

However, the spending map shows $0.00 spent in contracts, grants or loans for the exact same zip code.

According to the DC Examiner, “The next quarterly report by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board – the federal agency in charge of tracking stimulus dollars that responded to the fake congressional district scandal by labeling them “unassigned” – is due January 30.”

Such mistakes are pervasive throughout the reporting on the entire website, and not just for Colorado. Similar errors have been discovered in Nevada, West Virginia, and Washington, to name a few.

The recovery.gov website is no small project of the Obama administration, as it recently received an $18 million dollar facelift.

While the zip code errors could be from something as simple as miskeying or transposing some numbers, the additional reporting problems for the website have drawn criticisms. As pointed out in this report from West Virginia Watchdog, the Reason Foundation’s Anthony Radazzo says,

These “data errors” or “human errors” according to government keep piling up. And it is certainly understandable that people around the country could report false information. But shouldn’t the federal government and management of the Recovery.gov website be held accountable for verifying the information? Especially if the president is going to cite the data to try and gain political favor by using it to “prove” the stimulus has “worked.”