June 17, 2009 12:58PM # Transparency in All Things By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) --- SHARE The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board is [seeking requests](http://www.scribd.com/doc/16515421/RAT-Board-Solicitation)[](http://www.scribd.com/doc/16515421/RAT-Board-Solicitation) for production of a better [Recov​ery​.gov](http://www.recovery.gov/). And in a bold stroke the [Sunlight Foundation](http://sunlightfoundation.com/) is [stepping up to bid](http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2009/06/17/we-are-going-bid-recoverygov/). A substantial amount of database and Web talent circulates around and in the Sunlight Foundation, and they can produce as good a Web site or better than any government contractor — and cheaper too. I think Sunlight stands a pretty good chance in this, simply because the contract award will now be subject to public scrutiny. Value-for-dollar to the taxpayer will be easily discernible, and that will raise the political risks of awarding the contract based on cronyism or go-with-whatchya-knowism. Transparency in all things. If Sunlight wins the contract, I have little doubt that they will produce a much better site and make real progress in transparency and oversight — things I talked about at our December 2008 conference, “[Just Give Us the Data!](https://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=5475)” Kudos to Sunlight for taking this bold and fun step. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).