For those of you who want to blaze your own money trail, there are several Web sites that detail government spending at the federal, state and county levels.

Soon more of this information will be available for viewing and analysis at The Advertiser's own Web site, the.honoluluadvertiser.com /specials/database/.

For now, one of the friendliest saloons along the Money Trail is run by the city's purchasing division, at www.honolulu.gov/pur/.

Last week, I pointed out some data anomalies at the site to newly appointed purchasing administrator Wendy Imamura. She took the site down for a while, but it should be back up now.

Check out the "encumbrances over $15,000" section of the page. It's like leafing through somebody else's check register. Except it's our check register and we should be leafing through it. You'll find every kind of city expense, from mundane to slightly odd to absolutely eye-popping. Mostly mundane, though. For instance, who knew the city spends so much every year on caustic soda? Or that the mayor gave $15,000 to the second annual Spam Jam?

You can also find how much we pay for tree trimming, corpse removal and vehicle hauling.

Alert trail blazers will also spot the names of two companies whose owners, Nelson Aguinaldo and Walter Arakaki, are now under criminal indictment for contracting fraud.

The companies, Diversified Janitorial Services and Walter Y. Arakaki General Contractor Inc., received multiple jobs from the city over the past 12 months. Aguinaldo and Arakaki have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. Trials are scheduled later this year.

You can sort data at this site by price, vendor, department, or other criteria. Organize it by price and you'll vividly see why the mayor is talking about sewer fee increases.

At the state level, there's the contract awards page at www.hawaii.gov/spo2 /source/ — part of the Web site hosted by the state procurement office. You can graze for days here, if you happen to be a dedicated data drone. Speaking of grazing, who knew that the state spends so many of our hard-earned tax dollars on "ungulate-proof" fences? (They keep ungulates such as deer, pigs and cattle out of protected areas.)

For federal contracts and grants, try out www.fedspending.org/. It's a little clunky but worth your perseverance.

If you know that a particular money trail will lead to boondoggle, excessive spending or white elephants, reach Jim Dooley at 535-2447 or jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com