UPDATE: It's up. On the evening of Friday, July 31, the contract was posted on Recovery.gov.

Despite GSA's and the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board's "confirmation" that the $9.5 million contract with Smartronix, Inc. to implement Recovery.gov 2.0 would be posted online, we're still waiting to see it on Recovery.gov.

Immediately after inking the $9.5 million (and up to $18 million if all options are exercised) deal, the Recovery Board took a heap of flack for not being transparent in its implementation of the website that is to bring transparency to Recovery Act spending. Also concerned about this lack of transparency, OMB Watch sent a letter to Recovery Board chief Earl Devaney asking that the contract be made immediately available.

As it turned out, GSA was monkey in the wrench, holding up disclosure until the bid protest period had ended. And then on Monday of last week (July 20), NextGov reported that:

GSA and Recovery Board officials confirm that the contract, which was criticized by Republicans and some in the media for its cost, will be published on the Recovery.gov site later this week, possibly as early as Wednesday.

[...]

In an interview last week with Government Executive, Recovery Board Chairman Earl Devaney said he did not want reporters or public interest groups to file a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain a copy of the agreement.

Government transparency advocates urged GSA and the board to publish the agreement.

"We are called the transparency board," Devaney said. "We will get the contract up. It just might not be instantaneous as some would want."

We'll let you know when it's up.

^{*Not "ha ha" funny}

Image by Flickr user pigdump used under a Creative Commons license.