Governor Donald L. Carcieri today announced that the Governor's Office of Economic Recovery & Reinvestment will post financial reports on the state's recovery website, www.recovery.ri.gov. A key provision of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is public reporting of project status, spending, and job creation and retention. Expenditure information for each department receiving Recovery funds is presented in a summary table with links to more detailed reports with information on dollars budgeted and spent to date.
"Every Recovery dollar the state spends is a taxpayer dollar, and we have an obligation to account for where it's going and how it's being spent," said Governor Donald L. Carcieri. "We continually strive to bring greater transparency, accountability, and integrity to the Recovery program. As invested partners in this, I encourage taxpayers to visit the website often, and to offer suggestions on ways we can improve."
Of the $1.1 billion Rhode Island is expected to receive in stimulus funds, the state has expenditures of $93,024,135 through April 24, 2009. This amount does not reflect the additional $25 per week in federal unemployment benefits or the additional food stamp funds. In some cases, the state has received a federal award but no expenditures or encumbrances have been made because the mechanism for distributing funds has not been finalized. Additionally, the federal government has announced and posted funding allocations for several programs; however the state does not have access to these funds until they are officially awarded and distributed.
The Office of Economic Recovery & Reinvestment will update the financial reports each week, and will continue to populate them with a greater level of detail as funds are spent and additional guidance is received from Washington, DC. Guidelines issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) require states to submit detailed financial reports by October 10, 2009, with the complete set of rules and regulations for reporting to be issued by the end of August.