The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets 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. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "audit" ...
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Waste investigations for any community
Get tips on how to investigate government in terms of who gets audited, what data sets are available and see how that information can lead to local news stories.
Tags: Government; government agencies; fraud; investigation;
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Ivory tower inspections: Holding higher education's complex bureaucracies accountable
Gabrielson discusses the challenges of deciphering the world if higher education. He suggests ways of demystifying the institutions if you're covering higher education; who to know to get the information/data you need; reading internal control audits to better understand university finances; and map the university's income sources.
Tags: education; higher education; college; university; administration; students; academic fraud; audit; tuition
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Databases: Investigating Locally and Around the World
Donald's presentation explores the importance of a "data state of mind" for reporters. Beyond knowing FOIA laws, he outlines the (at least) 25 databases every newsroom should have and use in their reporting. The databases cover several different beats, and Donald details the value of each.
Tags: databases; reporting; census data; budgets; audits; tax data; personnel files; campaign finance; financial disclosure reports; voter registration; election results; crime statistics; sexual predators; business demographics; SEC 10K: EDGAR; 990s; EPA Toxic Release Inventory; EPA Enforcements; water quality data;
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Government Waste Initiative
McIntosh addresses the collaborative efforts of the Journal-Constitution, WBS-TV and WBS Radio to cover "questionable government spending, inefficiency and waste." She outlines the documents and public records a reporter should mine when covering the topic of government waste. She also outlines some reporting routines that our beneficial when covering government.
Tags: government waste; public records; budgets; audits; bond issues; expense reports; expense records; lawsuits; salary records; RFPs; RFQs
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Hiding in Plain Sight: The Power of Public Records
Mulvihill provides examples of stories done with public records, and outlines your right to access. She discusses how denials of public records requests can become part of the story.
Tags: public records; FOIA; Freedom of Information Act; transparency; data; state audits; federal audits
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Paper and Databse Trails
Hall discusses the information that an investigative reporter can gather from various data sources including documents and databases. The tipsheet provides a list of documents/records and what sort of information you can anticipate finding with each given example
Tags: documents; FOI; databases; audits; payroll documents; police reports; correspondence; reports; annual budgets; overtime; purchasing records; contracts; campaign finance reports; test scores; tax-exempt organizations; inspection reports
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Digging into Nonprofits: IRS Form 990
Campbell outlines the information that can be gathered from the IRS 990 form when investigating a nonprofit. Campbell gives a road map for the form, detailing what information can be obtained from specific lines of the form.
Tags: nonprofits; 990; 990-EZ; Guidestar; audits;
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The basics of business investigations
Wethe lists various records to search when investigating businesses, as well as reports and archives to consult. The tipsheet organizes public records by type, such as real estate, police, court, etc.
Tags: open records; public records; business; legal records; financial records; audits; government; finance
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Ohio Public Records Audit
Gaumer describes a 2003 public records audit done by the Ohio Newspaper Association. He discusses each step that the reporters took, and the conclusions they eventually came to.
Tags: public records; public information; FOIA; Sunshine Law; freedom of information
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Dissecting Profits and Non-Profits
This tipsheet offers sources to use when investigating both publicly traded companies and non-profits. Most of the sources are online, and include the Security and Exchange Commission, Dun and Bradstreet credit reports and Guidestar.