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As we've noted recently, it's been a heck of a year here at POGO. Beyond publishing reports, developing a database, and sending letters to policymakers, we also authored some 900 blog posts, which ranged from one-liners to gargantuan near-reports. Here are ten posts that, for one reason or another, stood out to me this year.
Whether you clicked or commented, tweeted or tumbled, or liked or lurked, thank you for making POGO's blog part of your 2011.
Project On Government Oversight staffers prepare to tape an end of the year message to our supporters.
Click here to see the video.
We talked about putting an extensive Year-in-Review article together for the blog, but frankly, we've got planes to catch and egg nogg to be drinking. Besides, sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.
Please click to the jump to see the Project On Government Oversight's favorite photos from 2011.
Continue reading "Our Year in Pictures (And What a Year We Had in 2011!)" »
Revolving Door
MORNING SMOKE |
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Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the freshest investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor. |
Mapping Out The Revolving Door Between Gov't And Big Business In Venn Diagrams
Mike Masnick, techdirt
Defense
The coming defense ‘train wreck’
Philip Ewing, DoD Buzz
Navy accounting remains in shambles
Alexandra Duszak, iWatchNews
Government Contracting
Ban on A-76 competitions for outsourcing extended in omnibus bill
Charles S. Clark, Government Executive
Energy
Sorting out what happens next at CMRR
John Fleck, Albuquerque Journal
Transportation
FAA Pilot Oversight ‘Lacks Rigor,' U.S. Investigator Says
Bloomberg
Oil Spill
BP oil spill compensation fund to receive independent audit
Deborah Barfield Berry, Federal Times
| Artist rendering of the DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyer. |
"The U.S. Navy destroyer program is at a crossroads," according to an Aviation Week Intelligence Network investigation by Mike Fabey.
The Navy began its current course by deciding to forego further procurement of the next-generation DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyers in favor of resurrecting the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke production line and retrofitting it with a new radar system and enhanced ballistic missile defense.
It’s expected that a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, due out in January, will be critical of this decision. Naval analyst Norman Polmar tells Fabey that there’s a very good chance this will lead the Navy to buy more Zumwalts. But, many analysts are asking if this is the right decision.
Which Ship Should Sail?
For myriad reasons, there is significant disagreement about which of these ships is the best option going forward.
MORNING SMOKE |
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Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the freshest investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor. |
Defense
Coast Guard Cutters Rust Away, Break Down
Andrea Stone, HuffPost Business
U.S. Destroyer, Combat Systems Head For Rough Waters
Michael Fabey, Ares
Revolving Door
Bill Aims to Shut FCC's Revolving Door
Katy Bachman, Adweek
Insider Access
AHCJ objects to CMS meeting privately with investors
Pia Christensen, Association of Health Care Journalists
Secret Meetings with Members of Congress Result in Big Profits for Hedge Funds
Lisa Rosenberg, Sunlight Foundation
Whistleblower Issues
Is the government reimbursing companies facing legal actions by whistleblowers?
Joe Davidson, The Washington Post
Financial Sector Oversight
SEC: Judge Rakoff Committed Error in Requiring Adjudication or Admission of Facts
Securities Law Prof Blog
Contract Oversight
IG: VA structured $133 million security contract to favor incumbent
Bob Brewin, Nextgov
Open Government
New York Times files lawsuit seeking info on targeted killings
Jesse Solomon, CNN
Image by Flickr user U.S. Coast Guard.
The Department of Justice announced on Monday that it had secured more than $3 billion in settlements and judgments in civil False Claims Act cases this past fiscal year. This follows last week's announcement that Justice recovered more than $5.6 billion in civil and criminal government fraud cases combined.
This week's press release announcement pays special tribute to whistleblowers. It notes that the $3 billion total includes a record $2.8 billion in recoveries under the whistleblower, or qui tam, provisions of the False Claims Act, and that the number of qui tam suits hit a peak of 638 this past year. According to Justice, whistleblowers have filed more than 7,800 qui tam lawsuits since 1986, when the False Claims Act was substantially strengthened.
“We are tremendously grateful to whistleblowers who have brought fraud allegations to the government’s attention and assisted us in this public-private partnership to fight fraud,” Assistant Attorney General Tony West stated in the press release.
Angela Canterbury, POGO’s Director of Public Policy, recently testified before the Senate on the need for stronger whistleblower protections for federal contractor employees.
Neil Gordon is a POGO Investigator.
Image via Truthout.org.
We've just made a big update of new entries to our Federal Contractor Misconduct Database, which helps citizens track misconduct related to fraud, ethics, labor, and a host of other types of violations by the government's biggest contractors. This update included plenty of new cases, but we’ve highlighted ten that we thought you might find interesting. If you’ve got an interesting way that you’ve used our database, we’d love to hear about it in the comments section.
Continue reading "Ten Interesting Updates to Our Federal Contractor Misconduct Database" »
| DOE appropriates billions each year for research in labs like this one in Oak Ridge National Laboratory. |
Late last week, POGO submitted a letter to the Department of Energy (DOE), urging the Department to strengthen its scientific integrity policies, make documents relating to allegations of scientific misconduct available to the public, and improve oversight of contractors' investigations of alleged misconduct by establishing an Office of Research Integrity (ORI).
A 2009 memorandum issued by President Obama asked government agencies and departments to come up with recommendations to improve “transparency in the preparation, identification and use of scientific and technological information in policymaking,” and submit them to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). In a follow-up announcement on October 3, agencies and departments were asked to submit their final draft policies by December 17 for review by OSTP.
On December 16, DOE submitted its “draft final” plan on scientific integrity to OSTP. DOE told POGO it will now go through another round of revisions. While DOE did share its preliminary response to OSTP with POGO, which is essentially an inventory of their current scientific integrity policies, they have thus far not made the draft final plan public.
POGO joins the Union of Concerned Scientists in urging DOE and all other agencies to make their plans public, following the example of a handful of other departments and agencies. One of the areas in which POGO strongly recommends strengthening scientific integrity at DOE—and other departments and agencies—is in the oversight of contractors’ investigations of alleged research misconduct. In its letter, POGO pressed DOE to strengthen its oversight and make the process more transparent.
Continue reading "POGO Submits Recommendations for Improving DOE Scientific Integrity" »