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 "bidding practices" ...
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CHP Contracting
Bee reporters investigate the California Highway Patrol, reporting on topics including "favoritism in bidding practices to ongoing instances of CHP pension fraud, and efforts to crack down on it." As a result of the Bee's work, the state legislature and administration called for further investigations to discover and fix the problems.
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Hillsborough County School District Land Investigation
The ninth largest U.S. school district, Hillsborough County (FL), in 2006 was "growing fast enough to fill five new schools" per year. To meet the demand, Hillsborough county used the services of 4 private real estate brokers, without using bids, in violation of its own regulations. Three of the four brokers have records of criminal, legal and financial problems. Some of those brokers simultaneously represented the sellers, or flipped the land themselves, resulting in land purchases often made substantially above appraisal values. Reporters from the St. Petersburg Times documented swampland purchases, and school sites surrounded by the homes of sexual predators.
Tags: land; school board; school district superintendent; real estate brokers; realtors; swampland; bidding practices; state FOI; land flipping; rezoning applications; condemnation; assessments; appraisals; financial investigations; land records; wetland maps; FBI investigation; Florida Department of Law Enforcement; Excel; Matthew B. Cox; Chester B. Luney; Fred Edmister; National Realty Associates; school planning; Wilson-Miller; Florida Real Estate Commission; 2606 East Caracus Land Trust; Laurence E. Fuentes; Fuentes and Kreischer Title Co.; Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
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Collapse of control
The Star-Telegram reports on "construction irregularities, shoddy oversight and waste of taxpayer funds that have riddled the Fort Worth school district for five years." Some of the findings are that two of the school's contractors regularly overcharged for jobs; the district was paying twice for the same job, as its employees worked on projects that have already been awarded to contractors; at least ten projects skirted standard bidding practices; internal controls were not in place. To report the issue, the team built a database of invoices and purchase orders.
Tags: budget scandals; finances; building codes; Texas public Information Act; FBI
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America's For-Profit Secret Army. Military Contractors are Hired to do the Pentagon's Bidding far from Washington's View.
With the war on terror a year old and the possibility of war against Iraq growing by the day, a modern version of an ancient practice is reasserting itself at the Pentagon. Mercenaries are thriving; only this time they are called private military contractors, and some are even subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies. The Pentagon cannot go to war without them.
Tags: Pentagon; Secret Army; American troops
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Bidding War
The New Yorker follows an antitrust investigation of a criminal price-fixing conspiracy between auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's. The story reveals that the investigation instigated a race "to see who could betray whom," resulting from the practice of American antitrust system to encourage the cooperation of informants. The article details the history of both auction houses, as well as the long litigation and settlement process in which they have been involved.
Tags: Sherman Antitrust Act; competitive market; trusts; monopolists; prices; Justice Department; lawyers; judges; courts; commissions; jurisdiction; criminal conspiracy; crime
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Minorities Get Leftovers in No-Bid Bond Deals (Municipal Bonds)
The story examines the city's multi-million dollar bond business. Municipal bonds are sold by securities firms through no-bid contracts, and Mayor Richard Daley is giving that business to politically connected Wall Street and Lacily Street firms and attorneys who donate to his campaigns. Simpson found that the law firms doing most of the bond business anted up more than $91,000 in donations to Daley's 1995 mayoral campaign, in a practice known in the industry a "pay-to-play." The city has sold $8.7 billion in bonds this decade, but city records show that the securities firms the city hires to sell the largest bonds are all white owned. The largest issue handled by a Chicago based, minority owned firm was a 1994 sale of $24 million.
Tags: None
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No title (id: 9684)
Phoenix Gazette exposes the practice of city council giving large no-bid contracts to campaign donors; also establishes that most city council campaign donations comes from outside the city and state, Feb. 21 - 23, 1993.
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No title (id: 9167)
KXLY-TV (Spokane, Wash.) obtained information that illegal bidding practices were occurring at the Spokane County fairgrounds; taxpayers spent several hundred thousand dollars for electrical work done by a single contractor who never bid on those jobs, and collected a significant amount of the money behind his business partner's back, March 2 - 4, 1992.
Tags: TAPE
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No title (id: 7483)
WTVF-TV (Nashville) investigates improper spending practices by director of two Nashville hospitals; the misappropriation involved fake computer purchases, money missing from a hospital volunteer fund, billings to cover personal expenses, unfair and rigged bidding process and improper corporate donations to his daughter's marching band, Sept. 18 - Oct. 19, 1990.
Tags: TAPE
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Medical Examiner May Have Conflict
Bradenton Herald tells how Florida's medical examiners were able to steer state and local taxes toward their own businesses without competitive bidding; also shows how their examination practices are rarely reviewed despite reports of botched autopsies.
Tags: Examiners; fraud; government