UPDATE: Transparency Board Official Calls Phantom ZIPs “Nonsense”
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*Correction: The 18902 ZIP code in Pennsylvania is located in Doylestown, PA and is real. We apologize for the error.
The Federal Transportation Administration is sending more than $11 million to Pierce Transportation so residents of Washington’s 98900 ZIP Code get nine diesel-electric buses. The project is just getting off the ground and has created 52 jobs; impressive considering there is no such Zip Code in Washington or any other state.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act pumped more than $375 million into at least 170 other ZIPs that do not exist, according to a national study of the Recovery.gov website compiled by Kansas Watchdog reporter Earl Glynn. The site reports the funds created 470 jobs at a cost of about $800,000 each in the phantom ZIP Codes.
The stimulus is sending $375 million in the form of grants, loans and government contracts to fund more than 200 projects being performed in imaginary ZIP codes, like Washington’s 98900.
Ed Pound, spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, said that the phantom ZIP Codes are “nonsense” and “much ado about nothing,” considering the 131,000 reports listed on the site.
“This is simply human error,” he said. “Just because recipients inverted ZIP Codes (at the place of performance) does not mean that the money is going to some phantom place.”
All but 12 of the nation’s states have at least one phantom ZIP receiving stimulus money. California tops the nation with 22 invented codes. Ohio, however, tops the nation in cost. The Buckeye State’s Office of Budget and Management sent $220 million to improve infrastructure in the 43233 ZIP code, which does not exist according to the USPS ZIP Code locator.
New Mexico Watchdog editor and Rio Grande Foundation reporter Jim Scarantino was first with the story on Monday. Stories from other state-based watchdogs followed (here, here, here and here).
The ZIP Code filing errors echo the phantom congressional district scandal that tore through Capitol Hill in November. Recovery.gov more than doubled the size of congress, listing 440 non-existent congressional districts as stimulus recipients.
The transparency board, which oversees the $18 million website, began correcting the errors after factcheck.org called it one of the “biggest whoppers of 2009.” The nonexistent districts were taken off the site and categorized as “Unassigned Congressional Districts.”
The phantom ZIP Codes are evidence that Recovery.gov data entry errors continue despite steps taken to improve the site. But Pound says that those errors will not be repeated in the coming cycle of reports.
“We have enhancements in place for the next reporting period that will not accept a recipient’s report if the congressional district or ZIP Code is incorrect,” he said.
The enhancements have been in place for weeks, but were not applied retroactively because, he said curtly, “we’re trying to get the job done.”
Data is gathered at the local level. Stimulus recipients supply information, including their congressional districts, ZIP codes, funding levels and job creation.
Even in small cities, officials entered the wrong data. Bowling Green, Ky., received just over $1 million in stimulus money, but those distributing it apparently are unaware that 42121 is not one of the city’s four ZIP codes.
The phantom ZIP codes listed on Recovery.gov do not necessarily reflect stimulus fraud or misuse. An AP fact check found that funds sent to phantom districts were accounted for, even if congressmen were not.
President Obama ordered all stimulus funds to be listed on the Web. The next report in due out on January 30.
All data was gathered at Recovery.gov. ZIP Codes were then plugged into the United States Postal Service ZIP finder.
The full report is below:
Phantom ZIP Codes
Posted under Featured.
Tags: Phantom ZIP Codes, Recovery.gov, Stimulus
14 Comments For This Post So Far
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More than $375 Million in Stimulus Reported Going to 170 Nonexistent Zip Codes
[...] full report by McMorris and Glynn is available here, with links to work by other journalists and the phantom Congressional districts [...]
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No phantom Stimulus zip codes in Kansas
[...] national watchdog site today reported there were ”phantom” ZIP codes for the recipients of some [...]
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Phantom ZIP gets $11.9 million stimulus
[...] Oklahoma, information compiled by Kansas Watchdog and by Bill McMorris at Watchdog.org show that a St. Louis, Mo.-based company, Hartman-Walsh Painting Company, received stimulus funds [...]
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Phantom ZIP gets $11.9 million stimulus in OK
[...] Oklahoma, information compiled by Kansas Watchdog and by Bill McMorris at Watchdog.org show that a St. Louis, Mo.-based company, Hartman-Walsh Painting Company, received stimulus funds [...]
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Recovery.gov Blasts Watchdogs, But Admits Errors and Promises Fix
[...] have found hundreds of millions of stimulus dollars reported going to nonexistent zip codes. A computerized analysis by Earl Glynn of Kansas Watchdog and Bill McMorris of Watchdog.org found more than $375 million [...]
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Recovery.gov director calls fake zip codes “much ado about nothing”
[...] reporters found this week about 170 fake ZIP codes reported to have received stimulus funds. But in total, about [...]
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Zip Code, Reporting Errors Found on Nevada Pages of Stimulus Website
[...] to watchdog.org, Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board spokesman Ed Pound dismissed the recent findings as [...]
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The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Phantom Stimulus Beneficiary
[...] First there were stories, thanks to the enterprising Watchdog.org reporters (Disclosure: I worked with them on the Massachusetts election last week), about the Recovery Act funds that went to phantom Congressional districts. Then came their reports about money going to non-existent zip codes. [...]
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Fed website shows more stimulus jobs than NH report
[...] Phantom Congressional Districts and non-existent Zip Codes, as the result of data entry errors from stimulus recipients. Ed Pound, spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, said that the phantom [...]
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Stimulus Data and Spending in Kansas in Q1
[...] Transparency Board Official Calls Phantom ZIPs “Nonsense”, Watchdog.org, Jan. 6, 2010. [...]
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Recovery.gov: 77 more jobs, $183 million more received in Kansas in last quarter
[...] Transparency Board Official Calls Phantom ZIPs “Nonsense”, Watchdog.org, Jan. 6, 2010. [...]
12:22 pm on January 7th, 2010
Most of these are transposing or mistyping digits. The money is still going to the project for which it was intended, searching by zip code and then opening the award clarifies it all. Way to jump on a soap box with a half truth! This is ridiculous.
10:28 am on January 8th, 2010
I would agree with Mr. Pound at recovery.gov in his assessment of your reporting about “erroneous” zip codes.
Apparently no one within your organization (or your state affiliates’ organizations) has bothered to drill down into any of the award details. If you had done so, then you would never have published this nonsense. For example, I personally reviewed the 14 cases that your affiliate virginia.watchdog.org (Old Dominion Watchdog) reported. In all cases, the stimulus funds were awarded to a project and/or to companies within the state of VA.
Now, we can argue all day as to where the economic benefit lies when federal funds are awarded via contract or grant to a company within one state doing a project in another state. That is certainly a debatable point. However, that does not excuse the shoddiness of your reporting on this subject matter.
As a result, I believe you owe the public a retraction/correction if you truly want to be considered a credible watchdog organization.
Thank you.
1:15 pm on January 8th, 2010
Thank you for posting my comments. At this time, I am still awaiting your Virginia affiliate to post similar comments I made on their site. I do hope they have enough similar integrity to post comments from readers that don’t happen to agree with them, as long as said comments are professional, as mine were. Again, thank you for posting my comments.