Recovery.gov Web Developer TappedRecovery.gov Web Developer Tapped

The federal government has awarded $9.5 million to Smartronix over the next seven months to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site, and up to $18 million through 2014. The site will track all the spending in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, potentially down to the subcontractor level.

However, Smartronix -- which has a mid-October deadline to redesign the site -- doesn't list Web development expertise in its profile on its Web site. The company does say it specializes in "net-centric enterprise services," cybersecurity, custom enterprise software, systems design, and health IT.

Only one Smartronix press release since 2006 -- a notice that one Smartronix graphics designer worked on an award-winning Navy Website -- has focused on Web design, and only a handful mention Web development as part of the scope of Smartronix' work. However, in the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board's request for quotation for the Recovery.gov redesign, it is noted that the government was looking for "an innovative, award winning, Web-design and implementation firm with expertise on user-focused, data-driven web designs."

"Recovery.gov 2.0 will use innovative and interactive technologies to help taxpayers see where their dollars are being spent," James A. Williams, Commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said in a press release announcing the award. "Armed with easy access to this information, taxpayers can make government more accountable for its decisions.”

The project RFQ calls Recovery.gov an "unprecedented effort" and says that "time is of the essence" in the redesign. In its press release, the GSA noted that the contract was awarded quickly to ensure the winner could meet the deadline for the site redesign. The Request for Quotation had been posted on June 11, only 28 days ago.

Smartronix will be under heavy pressure to get Recovery.gov done right and on time. It is a highly public project that has been hyped repeatedly by the Obama Administration, and the law calls for reporting to begin by October 10. A petition is already circulating to encourage Smartronix to disclose in a transparent way how it is spending money on Recovery.gov since the Recovery.gov project is "all about transparency."

Smartronix also isn't known for taking on civilian projects. On its Website, Smartronix highlights only military and security agencies as its current clients, including the Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy, Army Special Operations Command, Department of Homeland Seurity and Transportation Security Agency.

However, it now has a big civilian Web design project ahead of it in what will also be the first test case of the GSA's $50 billion multi-award, multi-vendor Alliant contract. Only the 59 Alliant vendors were allowed to bid on the Recovery.gov contract.

Recovery.gov currently runs on Linux, with Drupal as the underlying content management system. With Smartronix on such a tight schedule, the government's RFQ notes that, wherever "practicable," the site redesign should "leverage existing infrastructure," though the RFQ also noted that the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board also wanted to improve workflow and process automation technologies for data submission.

Neither Smartronix nor the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board responded to requests for comment, though Smartronix' Website notes that a formal press release is coming soon.

According to OMB Watch's FedSpending.org, Smartronix won $48.5 million in federal spending for fiscal year 2007, only $133 thousand of which was in full and open competition with more than one bidder.

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