Wanted: Stimulus Whistleblowing Instructions

As the relative drizzle of stimulus money crescendos into a dollars downpour, minimizing waste, fraud and corruption is going to be a massive job, one that could benefit from some crowd-sourcing. To that end, the stimulus bill included whistleblower protections for employees of private contractors and state and local governments that receive stimulus money. Figuring out how to blow your stimulus whistle, though, might be a challenge.

The watchdog group Project on Government Oversight released a report yesterday finding that only seven states (Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine and Texas) have clear instructions for whistleblowers on their recovery Web sites. Only 14 states listed a whistleblower hotline, as opposed to the usual “contact us” link.

The group concluded that the state Web sites generally seem to be making a good-faith effort, but that “there is certainly room for improvement.”  On the bright side, every state but one has a separate site dedicated to stimulus projects. (Here's our list of the sites.) The straggler? Louisiana.