The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "subcontractors" ...
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The Home Depot
WCVB found that Home Depot used sub-contractors as installers, not full-time employees, and deliberately mislead customers about it. This lead to poor quality installations and dissatisfied customers. Because of the investigation Home Depot not only "changed the way it does background checks on its sub-contractors nationwide but it also developed new policies for its sales staff and sub-contractors."
Tags: company; policy; Home Depot; sub-contractors; consumer; installations; sex offenders;
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Dallas/Fort Worth Contractors' Dispute
This story is about the failure of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to pay subcontractors in a timely manner for the airport's largest capital development project since it was built, a 2.7 billion dollar project.
Tags: business; construction; contractors; travel; airplanes; 9/11; airline industry; travel; Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
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Home Sick
Reporters at the Florida Trend magazine examine a 30-year-old contract law which protects subcontractors from getting stuck with the bills of bankrupt contractors. The state law, called the Construction Lein Law, puts any building costs not paid by the general contractor into the hands of the homeowners, regardless of if they have already paid the contractor. This law has caused a number of problems among consumers because of lax state regulation of homebuilders, and the ability to easily rip off consumers.
Tags: Construction Lien Law; subcontractors; homebuilding contractors
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Unsafe Skies
Breakdown in quality control and supervision of outsource maintenance work at a major airline puts public at risk of catastrophic accidents. A former United Airlines mechanic who was fired from his job told KCBS he first became suspicious after discovering from company computer records that a third-party contractor had neglected to perform required maintenance on United's entire fleet of 727's in 2000. By that time, the planes had already been up in the air for four months and the same contractor was allowed to continue servicing United planes. Furthermore, the system of quality control and oversight designed to insure adequate maintenance at United's outsource facilities had broken down. It was secretaries and not the qualified mechanics who were signing off on a vast array of maintenance jobs at repair shops.
Tags: TAPE; aviation; plane; airplane; United Airlines; maintenance; outsourcing; secretaries; mechanic; whistleblower; airline; air; Federal Aviation Administration; FAA; oversight; repair shop; subcontractor; federal regulations
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"Contractor Cons"
WINK-TV reporters do in-depth reports on several Florida contractors whose unhappy customers accuse them of fraud and improper business practices. The contractors (Challenger Pools, DeSpirito Kitchen, Sunstate Designs, and Homecare Industries) are accused of taking their customer's money and not completing jobs, and in some cases, not having a valid contractor's license at all. In many instances, the customer pays the contractor a deposit to complete the job, while the contractor does not pay it's sub-contractors and suppliers. As a result, these sub-contractors can force the customer to pay, or put a lien on their homes in response ot Florida's Lien Law.
Tags: contractor fraud; Challenger Pools; DeSpirito Kitchen; Sunstate Designs; Homecare Industries; Florida Lien Law
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Building Homes: Building Problems
This set of 14 stories examines recent construction in over 400 central Florida homes. The findings reveal that many of these houses have major flaws in their construction. As WESH-TV reports, these problems are due to subcontractors who hire untrained labor and illegal immigrants.
Tags: Housing; flaws in construction; housing subcontractors; illegal immigrants; tapes; transcript
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Building Homes: Building Problems
"A yearlong investigation by the Orlando Sentinel and WESH-NewsChannel 2 into new-housing construction in the region uncovered a systemic lack of quality control by builders who are producing too many homes too fast, with not enough trained workers and inadequate oversight." The investigation consisted in a survey of new home construction in the state of Florida and the inspection of 406 homes built in 2001, that were randomly selected from the 18,000 new homes sold in Central Florida that year done by engineering students at the University of Central Florida. "The reporting attributed the cause to the construction of too many homes too quickly, by a poorly trained and supervised work force dominated by illegal migrants, with inadequate oversight by regulators."
Tags: building; homes; construction; Latino; Hispanic; immigrants; illegal; inspection; workers; migrants; Florida; subcontractors; Mexicans; engineering; homeowner; builder; CAR
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World Trade Center Clean-up Contractors Contribute to Governor George Pataki's Re-election
Berstein reports that a quarter of the contractors and subcontractors who participated in the clean-up of the World Trade Center site made contributions to New York Governor George Pataki and the New York Republican party, with two thirds of the money coming in after the September 11 attacks.
Tags: September 11; campaign finance; New York; World Trade Center; contractors; Republican Party; RADIO; CD; transcript
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School Food Safety; School Lunches: Illness On Menu
The Tribune reports on school food illness outbreaks across the United States. The series finds that "dangerous practices exist in the factories where school food is made and in the kitchens and cafeterias where it is warmed and served." The government inspection system for monitoring the $5-billion-per-year school-food business is flawed. It is often difficult to trace spoiled food because subcontractors' identities are rarely disclosed to school officials. The reporter looks at a notorious case in which 1,200 children in North Dakota were sickened by contaminated tortillas.
Tags: schools; education; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); FOIA requests; lead-based paint; lead poisoning; health violations; bacteria; CAR; meat industry; food safety; FDA; CDC
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Dirty Pool; Firehouse Blues
SF Weekly reports on a public works project gone down the drain. The Martin Luther King swimming pool, that was to be built in a largely poor and minority neighborhood, was one of the projects championed by the mayor. But mismanagement on the part of public works officials and the contractor selected to do the work, lead to over a year and $1.5 million in delays. The contractor won the bid by listing his wife's company as one of the minority sub-contractors. A local dentist was hired as public relations manager for the project -- for $100,000. The second story is about the renovation of a firehouse awarded to the same contractor.
Tags: public works; city government; contracts; contractors; minority subcontractors