The federal government sent 2.5 million stimulus dollars to North Carolina ZIP codes that don't exist.The information came from the government's own Web site -- Recovery.gov. The site was set up to track the distribution of the $787 billion made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
It lists 479 North Carolina ZIP codes as the destination of $4.2 billion in grants, contracts, and loans. Four of those ZIP codes -- 24858, 28389, 23854, and 27600 -- are nowhere to be found on U.S. Postal Service maps. In the four ZIP codes, the Web site reports, the $2.5 million created 0.5 jobs all told.
All North Carolina ZIP codes start with 27 or 28, so projects listed in 24858 and 23854 ZIP codes would not be based in North Carolina, even if such ZIP codes existed.
The Philadelphia-based Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity reported last week that the federal government's Web site had assigned $375 million in stimulus spending nationally to 440 nonexistent ZIP codes.
In December, the Franklin Center found that nearly $6.4 billion in stimulus spending had been attributed to 440 phony congressional districts.
Deputy Press Secretary for the Recovery Act Jim Gilio said the illegitimate ZIP codes were probably innocent mistakes. He said the list was compiled based on information reported by recipients of the funding, and that they most likely made data entry errors.