Linda Douglass, a spokeswoman for the White House, said the Obama administration is disclosing far more than its predecessors.
"The public has had much more of a window on the process of discussing these things with various interest groups than they've ever had before," Douglass said. "It could be that some meetings have certainly been in a private setting, but I don't know if the president had promised that every single conversation he has everywhere would be webcast."
Advocates for open government have been distressed by Obama's announcement in May that he would block release of photos showing U.S. troops mistreating prisoners in Iraq. They also criticized his efforts to conceal the names of visitors to the White House.
Barofsky, whose title is special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, said disclosing information to the public was important to the success of the bailout program.
In an interview and in his official report, Barofsky expressed particular concern about the public-private partnership to purchase toxic assets from banks.
All told, Barofsky estimated that the government's exposure under the financial services rescue program, also known as the TARP program, was nearly $24 trillion, a figure that Treasury officials said was exaggerated.
The total takes into account dozens of financial recovery programs set up by the Bush and Obama administrations, as well as by the Federal Reserve. The $24 trillion represents the worst case of the government's gross financial explosure.
