Will administration spending be transparent?

• Position: Government

The Obama Administration's promised level of transparency carries risk, but is the right way to try to build trust with the American public, maintains ethics specialist Wayne Norman, a professor at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Durham, N.C. "There are good reasons why leaders and managers in both the public and private sectors generally prefer to keep as much information as possible under wraps. Mistakes, and worse, can happen and one would prefer that these were never seen by potential critics.

"The other side of this transparency and accountability initiative is that it gives the White House a better chance to know the truth about how the money is being spent--and more of the truth, sooner and more completely It can deal with problems before they get worse--and it can put criticisms about this or that program into context.

"There's an old adage in business: if you can't measure it, you can't imagine it," advises Norman. Increased transparency will not prevent rumors and allegations about wasteful, silly, or corrupt spending of stimulus money, Norman points out, but it will help the President build social capital, or trust, with the American people so he can pursue his legislative agenda.

"If the Obama Administration goes back to the well for more stimulus and bail-out money, they must first prove they are responsible...