Public paying for secrecy

The federal government increased secrecy on several counts last year, part of a disturbing and growing trend, according to OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition of more than 70 open-government advocates.

Although there is good news, too much of it is tempered by setbacks.

Freedom of Information law allowed us to learn that the federal government spent $114.5 billion on contracts that were awarded without any competition.

Yet competition is what brings down prices.

And lower pricing saves taxpayers money.

Use of full and open competition has dropped by almost 25 percent, according to the coalition. And there has been an increase in the number of contracts awarded in which only one bid was received, raising questions that the contract specifications were narrowly written so that only one favored company would qualify.

On a related topic, the federal government recovered nearly $2 billion under the False Claims Act, which allows people not affiliated with the government to sue federal contractors for alleged fraud.

Many of these people were whistleblowers, people who saw the fraud from the inside and took action to stop it. Whistleblowers may receive a reward for risking the suit — usually 15-25 percent of the final award — but government receives much more.

Last year, whistleblowers accounted for $1.45 billion of the $2 billion recovered in fraudulent contract charges.

But the coalition cites a Washington Post story saying that the Department of Justice has a backlog of 900 fraud cases, and the number is rising. Fraud continues because Justice does not have enough resources to investigate.

There’s more:

Compared to every dollar the federal government spent declassifying documents, it spent $195 dollars maintaining, or adding to, secret material, an increase of 5 percent in one year.

After a two-year drop, 2008 saw an increase in the amount of material secreted under the heading “classified.” That included a small increase in direct decisions to classify material, and a 13 percent increase in “derivative” decisions — those triggered because related material has been declared classified.

Over-classification — secreting material that does not need to be off limits — costs taxpayer money in manpower and maintenance.

Meanwhile, the government is required by law to respond to public requests for information, either providing that information or explaining why it is classified. But Washington’s government agencies do a poor job of answering those requests — and in fact, run an unanswered backlog. Last year, the 25 agencies failed to make a dent in that backlog, despite receiving the fewest new requests since 1998, the first year that tracking began.

“In recent years, polls have shown that a growing number of Americans believe the federal government is secretive — terrible news for our democracy,” said Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org. “Until we restore openness and accountability to the federal government, it will be impossible to win back the public’s trust.”

Well said.