The White House turned over reporting and data collection to stimulus recipients and the Recovery Board, an independent government agency. That didn't work out so well: Many recipients were confused about how to report and 10% didn't bother. Many also claimed the money was earmarked for non-existent congressional districts, while others wildly overestimated the number of jobs created.
The Recovery Board also made a whopper of a decimal goof on its Web site, stating that Sanofi Pasteur topped its biggest stimulus contract list with $1.4 billion, when in fact the French drugmaker received 1/100th of that, or $10.4 million.
By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer
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