Government (federal/state/local) Archives

Federal stimulus contracts favor large firms

June 9, 2009

A story by Michael Jamison of the Missoulian (Missoula, Mont.) shows that the contracting scheme the federal government is employing to award stimulus contracts favors large corporations over small- and medium-sized firms. In an effort to speed up the bidding process, the federal government is using indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, or IDIQ, contracting. “An IDIQ is…

FDA inspection failed to catch tainted syringes

June 8, 2009

An investigation co-published by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica reveals that the Food and Drug Administration failed to prevent the distribution of tainted syringes linked to several deaths and serious illnesses. “Three months before the pre-filled syringes were shipped in October 2007, an FDA inspector visited the plant in North Carolina where they were made.…

County cancels contracts with troubled nonprofit

June 4, 2009

A running investigation by The Fresno (Calif.) Bee found that Fresno County had millions of dollars worth of contracts with Genesis Family Center, a nonprofit social-service agency headed by two sisters who had been convicted of embezzling the agency’s money. Even after the convictions, the agency continued to engage in questionable spending practices, such as…

Top campaign contributors given plum positions by Obama

June 3, 2009

President Obama has nominated several top campaign contributors for ambassadorships, according to a report by Jonathan D. Salant and Julianna Goldman of Bloomberg.com. “Even with his pledges to change government, Obama is following the tradition of his predecessors by offering some ambassadorships to top campaign backers, including four of the 12 nominations this week. The…

Pentagon billed over $2.7 billion to unnamed contractors

June 2, 2009

“The Pentagon spent more than $2.7 billion on ‘miscellaneous items’ in 2008 for which the contractor was listed as ‘not available’ — a rare omission for Defense Department documentation — according to an Aerospace Daily analysis of an independent national database of government contracting data,” according to a report by Michael Fabey of Aerospace Daily…

Stimulus funds go to contractors with history of problems

May 18, 2009

Contractors receiving stimulus funds for nuclear cleanup sites across the country include “many that have been cited for serious safety violations and costly mistakes,” according to a report by Kimberly Kindy of The Washington Post. “In the case of the Energy Department program, private contractors do all cleanup work, and they have been involved from…

Land parcels owned by city poorly tracked

May 13, 2009

The city of Wichita owns more than 11,000 acres that include multimillion-dollar buildings such as City Hall, an overgrown wildlife preserve and small, oddly shaped plots worth as little as $10. But a weeks-long investigation by Brent D. Wistrom of The Wichita Eagle shows disjointed records system leaves city officials and the public unable to…

Landowners, not voters, control government of Florida town

May 11, 2009

A three-part series in the Naples (Fla.) Daily News looks at the town government of Ave Maria, a community that surrounds a Catholic-oriented university started by Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan. Monaghan and a local landowner got a state law passed creating a government that they can control forever at the expense of the town’s…

Investigation reveals charities’ inflated finances

May 4, 2009

The Arizona Republic has spent a year investigating a network of 22 charities with ties to a Phoenix televangelism ministry. Nearly all the charities are part of the Combined Federal Campaign, which is the largest workplace charity drive in the world. The series reveals how much donors may not know about the charities they give…

Paper investigates Philly’s flawed tax board