Federal contracts pumped $122.4 million into Hawaii's economy while saving or creating 250 jobs as of early October, according to a federal government Web site that tracks stimulus spending.

Overall, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is expected to infuse about $1.4 billion into the state and create or save 15,000 jobs over a two-year period, excluding tax benefits. However, job creation data released so far, which account for only 10 percent of that money, indicates that the number of jobs created or saved is well off that projected pace.

Government and private sector leaders cautioned that it's too soon to gauge the economic impact of the stimulus act. That's because most stimulus spending and job creation won't occur until next year. In addition, systems built to track stimulus spending are just coming online.

Jennifer Sabas, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye's chief of staff in Honolulu, likened the current phase of stimulus spending to "priming a pump."

"While clearly the senator would like to see these numbers higher, I think we're confident that as we continue to move on, that reporting requirements are clarified (and) that we will start to see the numbers begin to jump as the bigger federal construction projects come online."

Job data now being released covers federal contract recipients during the first six months of stimulus spending. The companies involved will be reporting new job numbers this week, which could add another 1,000 jobs to the total saved or created with stimulus money.

Government and private agencies that spent or received stimulus money must report on the number of jobs created by the end of this month. They're currently gathering those job counts from contract recipients.

Web site www.recovery.gov is the main clearinghouse for stimulus-related data.

Overall, Hawaii is expected to receive roughly $400 million in federal contracts under the stimulus program. Another $770 million or so in federal money will be distributed by the state.

Most of the money will pay for highways and bridges, transit systems, clean-water projects, public housing improvements and affordable housing.

TRACKING SPENDING

The program also is expected to require unprecedented levels of transparency, oversight and accountability regarding how that money is spent. Systems to track and verify spending and job creation are still in the development phase, said Mark Anderson, a deputy director at the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism that is on a team tracking stimulus spending.

As those systems come online, resources can be diverted to pumping more money ino the economy.

"Getting the money out quickly is part of the program, but also making sure the money is well spent," Anderson said. "Quite frankly a lot of effort has been spent so far just making sure that we can report successfully .

"Going forward now that we have these things just about in place, we'll have to focus more on getting these projects out."

So far the federal government reports making 85 stimulus-related contract awards statewide worth $122.4 million. Separately the state reports making 143 stimulus-related contract awards worth $770.4 million.

Although many projects are under way, stimulus spending and employment isn't expected to peak until next year.

Anderson said the state will release its first stimulus-spending job creation count next week.

"For the state portion I think we're looking at over a thousand of jobs," he said.

The job numbers coming out of the federal and state governments are estimates of full-time jobs saved or created as reported by contract recipients. However, the data released so far appears problematic.

For example, Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Innovative Technical Solutions Inc. has started work on a $21.9 million contract to design and build a building at Hickam Air Force Base. That project has created less than one job.

Honolulu general contractor Allied Pacific Builders Inc., which has received about $3 million in U.S. Army and Air Force stimulus contracts, reported creating 42 full-time jobs.

Allied Pacific Builders President William Alicar said most of that work will be under way in three to four months and completed in mid-2010.

Alicar said he's hired three added workers because of the stimulus contact. The other 39 jobs tied to the stimulus contracts likely were created at the company's subcontractors and suppliers, Alicar said.

"It probably is (an accurate job count) because, ourselves, we didn't create 42 positions, but it has probably trickled down to our subcontractors because we can't do everything in house. It's kind of hard to tell, but that's possible" that 42 jobs were created.

DBEDT's Anderson said the accuracy of stimulus job creation data should improve with time.

"The federal government is asking thousands of people to undertake this counting of jobs now and I think there's going to be a high error rate, but I think it's going to get better with time," he said.