Local Department of Defense and Government contractor, Smartronix was awarded a contract worth potentially $18 million by the General Services Administration on Wednesday, July 9. The contract was awarded to redesign the transparency Web site, Recovery.gov, which is the federal site designated to track for the American public how stimulus funds are spent.

The contract award was immediately pounced upon by the national media as potentially being a ‘pork’ project because over the past ten years, Smartronix principals were campaign contributors to House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer’s campaigns to the tune of $19,000 in aggregate. However, according to Hoyer spokes people, the congressman had no prior knowledge of the award.

Since that time, both Hoyer and Smartronix have been inundated with media questions regarding the relationship. Both Hoyer and Smartronix have vehemently denied any wrong doing or undue influence.

Smartronix was awarded the contract in an open bidding scenario under the agency’s Alliant program encompassing 59 Alliant program companies. Of those companies, only three submitted bids and the GSA chose Smartronix’s offering as the ‘best value.’

The contract calls for the entire redesign and implementation of Recovery.gov 2.0 by October 10 with all initial phases being completed by January 2010. Funds allocated for that aspect of the contract adds up to $9.5 million. If the GSA chooses to exercise all options through January 2014, the total task order value could reach $18 million.

As part of the contract, Smartronix is expected to provide the Recovery Board with a dynamic Web site that allows Americans to track exactly how stimulus funds are being spent down to the last penny and is to be a fully interactive Web site allowing citizen commentary at all levels of functionality.

Smartronix is also responsible for hosting and maintaining the site on a 24-hour a day, seven day a week basis.
Smartronix has indicated that the contract is a very high-risk venture given the mandated time constraints, which may account for the fact that only three companies submitted a bid for consideration.

Essentially, the goal of the Recovery.gov 2.0 is to provide information that will allow each and every dollar to be tracked from the treasury down to the last subrecipient of federal tax dollars and every step along the way.

Given reports that have circulated in the past months about the inability of the government or any other entity to track, with any certainty, moneys already spent under the initial round of stimulus funding, and the fact that only 15 percent of the allocated funds have been spent, the proposed site has a very lofty task requirement.

Putting aside the insinuated improprieties surrounding the contract award, the contract may very well be a boon to St. Mary’s county.

For more about the contract award see http://www.smartronix.com/portals/0/PDF_Files/Recovery_gov_Press_Release.pdf