The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog

The Secret to Our Success (We Couldn't Do It Without You)

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

2011 has been an excellent year for us at the Project On Government Oversight, and we wanted to share some of our successes and our gratitude with all of our supporters who have read our reports, shared our stories, tweeted at us, answered an action alert, or made a donation.

Thank you for your enthusiasm and your continued engagement. It's what keeps us going, and it's why we do what we do. With your support, we can make 2012 the biggest year yet for POGO and our supporters.

Click here to donate to POGO today.

Andre Francisco is a POGO Communications Associate

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New Video: U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Facilitating Human Labor Trafficking on Military Bases

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

U.S. taxpayers are paying contractors who participate in human trafficking on U.S. military bases around the world. Thousands of poor, rural men are being held in warehouses for months without pay after promises of high salaries. These men are used to build and maintain U.S. military bases in combat zones, and they are being routinely exploited by a subcontractor system with little oversight.

Sindhu P. Kavinamannil and Sam W. McCahon are making a documentary about human labor trafficking. Recently, they sat down at POGO to record a podcast about their findings.

Check out the short teaser above, and stay tuned for the full podcast later this week.

Andre Francisco is a POGO Communications Associate

Follow @andrefrancisco

Watch Danielle Brian's TEDx Talk

By DANA LIEBELSON

Danielle Brian, POGO's executive director, spoke as part of the TEDxMidAtlantic conference on October 29. The theme of the 2011 conference, an independently organized offshoot of the annual TED conferences, was "humanity's ongoing desire to achieve a sense of place.”

Her speech focused on providing practical solutions to our government's problems by stepping out of our own political camps and finding common ground. It is available online here.

“As long as we huddle in our comfort zones, we can be assured that absolutely nothing will get fixed,” said Brian. “We are not powerless; we simply have to take those first steps.”

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How America's Greatest Managerial Minds Make Weapon-Buying Decisions

By NICK SCHWELLENBACH

Courtesy of Tom Christie, the Pentagon's former Director of Test and Evaluation, this 44-minute film is a spoof of the Pentagon's Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) that made its way around the bowels of the Pentagon and the hallowed halls of Congress.

Although it dates back to December 1988, it is still relevant today--only the characters have changed. POGO screened the film several weeks ago with Christie explaining the film's background and, after it made its way around the government, its aftermath.

It has its share of inside jokes that the public might not readily get, such as when David Chu does the 'Spinney' martial arts move -- a reference to Chuck Spinney, the Department of Defense analyst whose trenchant critique of the way the Pentagon buys weapons landed him on the front cover of TIME magazine in 1983.

Overall, I think the film's script holds up well over two decades after it was made.

Nick Schwellenbach is POGO's Director of Investigations.

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Get easy access to more videos like this by becoming a subscriber to POGO's YouTube channel.

New Video: A Top-Heavy Military is Costing You Money and Hurting Defense

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

The U.S. military is more top-heavy today than it has ever been. As the Department of Defense adds more and more generals and admirals to its ranks--a process known as "star creep"--the military becomes more expensive and less agile. POGO National Security Fellow Ben Freeman tells you what you need to know about star creep in one minute. If you want more info, check out our previous posts on star creep.

If you like what you see, consider subscribing to POGO's Youtube channel to get easy updates on all our new videos.

Andre Francisco is POGO's Communications Associate. Ben Freeman is POGO's National Security Fellow.

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New Video: Getting the Conversation Started on Overpaying Government Contractors

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

For this week's video, Dana Liebelson and I went out on the National Mall to talk to some people about how service contractors are charging the government nearly twice what it would cost federal employees to do the same work. It's a complicated issue, but when presented with the facts, the people we talked to all suggested that the government needs to take a closer look at how it does contracting.

If you agree, tell your Member of Congress we can't afford overpriced service contractors.

Don't forget to subscribe to our Youtube channel to see more videos like this.

Andre Francisco is a POGO Communications Associate

Follow @andrefrancisco

New Video: Background on the Bad Business Report with Scott Amey

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

As the government increased spending on contractor goods and services from $200 billion to $500 billion a year, POGO began looking at how that money was spent. Recently we release our Bad Business report that debunks the myth that contractors are cheaper than federal employees. In this video, POGO's Scott Amey gives some background on the rise of federal contractors and how POGO came to do the Bad Business report. For more videos, check out our Youtube page where you can subscribe to be notified about all our new videos.

Andre Francisco is a POGO Communications Associate

Follow @andrefrancisco

New Video: Wasting Billions of Taxpayer Dollars on Government Contractors

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

In our latest video,  POGO Investigator Paul Chassy and POGO General Counsel Scott Amey discuss their new report: Bad Business: Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Wasted on Hiring Contractors. Chassy and Amey debunk the myth that private contractors are cheaper than using federal workers.

For more on what others are saying about the the report, read after the jump.

What Would You Pay? Washingtonians React to Boeing Overcharging the Army

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

POGO's Bryan Rahija and I went out on the streets of Washington, DC, to ask people what they thought about the government paying $327.60 for a spare part that costs $8.88.

They weren't happy.

The part was a sleeve bushing used in U.S. Army Helicopters, and it is one of a handful of parts that the Army was charged an extra $13 million for by Boeing.

But even more outrageous is that the government isn't asking for a refund. Join the people we talked to in asking Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to demand a refund from Boeing.

Andre Francisco is a POGO communications associate

Follow @andrefrancisco

Video: A Panel Discussion with Harry Shearer About His New Movie, The Big Uneasy

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

Earlier this month, as part of our Whistleblower Film Series, POGO co-hosted a screening of The Big Uneasy, Harry Shearer's documentary about how Hurricane Katrina evolved into a disaster that could have been avoided, focusing in particular on the poor science and management decisions made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The film follows Maria Garzino, as well as the leaders of two scientific investigation teams, as they reveal the true story of why New Orleans flooded in 2005.

After the screening, Shearer participated in a panel discussion with POGO's Executive Director Danielle Brian and George Sorvalis from the National Wildlife Foundation and the Water Protection Network. Shearer and Brian talked about the changes they think need to be made to the Army Corps of Engineers.

Shearer is famous for his role in mockumentaries like This Is Spinal Tap and his voice work on The Simpsons.

To find out about how you can get involved, check out Levees.org and Friends of New Orleans.

Andre Francisco is a POGO Associate.

Podcasts on Video: A Teaser of Our Talk with Bob Alvarez About Nuclear Fuel Rods

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

Here is a video teaser to get you excited about the podcast we posted yesterday with Bob Alvarez, a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). Listen to the whole podcast to hear exactly how bad things could get if the U.S. doesn't learn from the lessons of Fukushima and change how it stores spent nuclear fuel rods. You can read the full report released by IPS with support from POGO here and listen to the podcast here.

Like what you are seeing? Subscribe to our Youtube Channel to hear about all of our new videos. 

Andre Francisco is a POGO associate.