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 "outsourcing" ...
-
Jay Sekulow's Golden Ticket
How Jay Sekulow, a leading lawyer of the Christian right, used funds donated to the American Center for Law and Justice, a nonprofit organization, to benefit himself and his family. The story revealed that ACLJ and affiliated organizations under his or his family's control paid more than $2 million for residences for Sekulow, as well as additional funds for planes and bodyguards, and that he "outsourced" his own legal services in ways that obscured his actual salary.
Tags: nonprofit; lawyer; legal services; ACLJ; American Center for Law and Justice; Jay Sekulow; Christian Right; fraud
-
Military Outsourcing in Iraq (series)
The author investigated the outsourcing of the Iraqi War by the US government. The reports covered the use of private contractors to train the Iraqi police force, the problems they encountered despite the positive spin from high ranking American military officials and presented a slide show of the training process, giving a visual indication of the difficulty faced by the trainers.
Tags: military; Iraq; Iraqi War; War on Terrorism; Iraqi Police Force; private security contractors; infiltration; insurgents; exit strategy; troop reductions; U.S State Department; SAIC; DynCorp
-
Air safety issues
Air Safety Issues is a six-part series that covers everything from a tragic crash caused by air controller error to outsourcing issues regarding maintenance of commercial aircraft.
Tags: Air safety; air traffic controller; controller error; flight records; flight path; Lindberg field; Controller shortages; maintenance; FOIA; Southern California airspace
-
Lost to India
This investigation took KNXV-TV to India to uncover the outsourcing of Arizona government jobs. It was revealed that Arizona government and businesses were training people in India to get jobs in call centers. Hundreds of thousands of tax dollars were used to run job programs to train people to sound more like Americans on the phone. As a result of this investigation, Arizona closed down the call center in India.
Tags: India; jobs; tax dollars; outsourcing of jobs; Arizona
-
The Nonprofit Gold Rush
As part of the San Francisco Bay Guardian's annual Freedom of Information issue, this investigation looks into the world of nonprofits and their place in public services and social programs. Every year, nonprofit organizations bid for contracts and provide services which account for 10 percent of San Francisco's spending, and 20 percent of its General Fund. The problem lies in tracking how the money is spent and where it goes. In some cases, nonprofit organizations have diverted public money to finance political campaigns.
Tags: FOI; nonprofit contracts; public services; outsourcing; privatization; social programs
-
Outsourcing the Pentagon
This study examined $900 billion in defense contracts in the six fiscal years between 1998 and 2003. After assembling Pentagon databases into a single table of 2.2 million records, the study identified and profiled defense department contractors who received at least $100 million between fiscal years 1998 and 2003. Among other findings, no-bid contracts accounted for 40 percent of the Pentagon's business in that time period.
Tags: Military; Defense spending; government contracts; Pentagon; Halliburton; Science Applications International; PACs; the Carlyle Group; CAR
-
Unsafe Skies
Breakdown in quality control and supervision of outsource maintenance work at a major airline puts public at risk of catastrophic accidents. A former United Airlines mechanic who was fired from his job told KCBS he first became suspicious after discovering from company computer records that a third-party contractor had neglected to perform required maintenance on United's entire fleet of 727's in 2000. By that time, the planes had already been up in the air for four months and the same contractor was allowed to continue servicing United planes. Furthermore, the system of quality control and oversight designed to insure adequate maintenance at United's outsource facilities had broken down. It was secretaries and not the qualified mechanics who were signing off on a vast array of maintenance jobs at repair shops.
Tags: TAPE; aviation; plane; airplane; United Airlines; maintenance; outsourcing; secretaries; mechanic; whistleblower; airline; air; Federal Aviation Administration; FAA; oversight; repair shop; subcontractor; federal regulations
-
Cost Cutting Costs Airlines Safety
The report investigated shoddy maintenance on a major U.S. air carrier as a result of cost cutting. CBS News was able to find internal documents and talk to whistle blower mechanics proving that United Airlines failed to do the required maintenance of its fleet and failed to use licensed mechanics as required by the FAA. Examples in this report include: secretaries signing work papers that needed certified mechanic's signatures; failed equipment shined up and reinstalled in planes without being repaired; and letters pressuring mechanics to ignore safety problems.
Tags: TAPE; cost cutting; airline; United Airlines; FAA; NTSB; mechanic; Transportation Department; whistle blower; airline safety; airplane; plane; airline maintenance; circuit breakers; secretary; safety problems; inspection; repair station; outsourcing
-
Workers for rent
The story looks at the booming staff-leasing industry that is "outsourcing liability for American companies - and leaving workers in the lurch." Leased employees can be hired and fired at will, and often get unfair benefits and pensions, the report finds. Legal ambiguities, including uncertainty about who the actual employer is, permit companies to additionally erode the rights of the employees. The statistics quoted in the story show that today more than 1,700 firms lease 2 million to 3 million workers.
Tags: National association of Professional Employer Organization; OSHA; workers' compensation; unions; retirement; Kelly; Manpower; Department of Labor; Bureau of Labor Statistics; National Association of Temporary Staffing Services