As part of the president's Open Government Directive issued in December, agencies had to produce transparency plans within four months. The plans came in on time, but some left a lot to be desired.
Earlier this week, a group of experts convened by OpenTheGovernment.org came out with a report card on how well the agencies met the original goals of the OGD.
Three agencies actually scored higher than 100 percent. Unfortunately for states and localities, one them was NASA. (No knock on NASA, of course -- congrats, guys! It's just that states aren't likely to interact very much with the space agency.)
The other two top performers, though, are likely of more interested to states and cities: HUD and the EPA.
The really bad news, as far as states are concerned is that the Office of Management and Budget landed waaaaaay down near the bottom. Third from last, in fact.
That's especially unfortunate, considering OMB is in charge of oversight of several parts of the Open Government Directive itself. (Oh, the irony!)
Of course, these plans are just a first start, and the good news is that OpenTheGovernment.org says many of the plans' deficiencies could be fixed relatively easy. We shall see...
via OMB Watch
