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 "private contracts" ...
-
Our Money, Their Failures
A six-week investigation by The Virgin Islands Daily News into the people and the money connected to the U.S. Virgin Islands governor's proposal for a $55 million sports complex. The investigative report was published on one day across 11 pages and achieved the result of stopping the project and forcing the governor to pledge no further contracts without vetting the principals. In the case of the sports complex that the governor and some V.I. senators were trying to push through, the investigation uncovered misrepresentations and a string of financial failures by a number of the private parties in the deal with the governor.
Tags: Government; governor; Virgin Islands
-
King High Charter Controversy
The King Charter stories reveal that two public officials- Dwight Evans, a state legislator, and Robert Archie, chair of the city's school governance board- collaborated on a secret campaign to steer a lucrative charter school contract to a politically connected private contractor.
Tags: Charter Schools
-
Paying out millions, and playing favorites
The series explored favoritism and ethical lapses in the way Sarasota County government awarded lucrative contracts to private vendors. We found that the county relied too much on "piggybacking," a purchasing shortcut that allowed low and middle-level employees to essentially award contracts to whoever they wanted without bids.
Tags: Sarasota County; private vendors; piggybacking; contracts
-
Watchdog website and its web pages
The Oklahoman/NewsOK.com started this project in 2008 with the Right to Know page, a collection of databases developed internally to go along with stories and links to relevant public information. That site became part of the Watchdog page in 2009. In 2010, the staff continued to evolve the Watchdog page with "mini-sites" of investigative topics, such as a political corruption case at the Oklahoma Legislature; the staff's FOI fight over the birth dates of public employees; and allegations of bid-rigging with a married lawmaker and lobbyist for a private company seeking a state juvenile justice contract. Other "mini-sites" under Watchdog include ongoing coverage of the state Department of Human Services and the federal stimulus package.
Tags: continuous coverage; online; watchdog; bid-rigging; Department of Human Services; federal stimulus; FOI; Right to Know
-
Divided Loyalties
The stories look at the conflicts of interest that arise when private colleges do business with trustee-affiliated companies.
Tags: trustee-affiliated companies; conflicts of interest; contracts; hedge funds; universities
-
Cowboys of Kabul
US Protection and Investigations, a company owned by a Texas couple named Del and Barbara Spier, was, until recently, one of the largest security operations in Afghanistan. The company oversaw security of reconstruction projects but secured no-bid contracts, submitted false invoices, hired men from a notorious Afghan warlord, paid off militants and demonstrated many other corrupt actions. "The Cowboys of Kabul" details the actions of these and other corrupt contractors in America's war on terror.
Tags: USPI; Afghanistan; Spier; contractors; militants; fraud; security; contracts; military; private security;
-
Improbable Private Prison Scam Plays Out in Hardin, Montana
The story developed out of Hardin, Montana, which had built a prison that sat vacant for two years. Captain Michael Hilton, head of American Private Police Force (APPF), was contacted to operate the prison and fill it with prisoners. After extensive research, it was determined Hilton was a conman with a history of civil judgments and a criminal record. Furthermore, the APPF contract was also a scam.
Tags: American Private Police Force(APPF); Hardin; Montana; Michael Hilton; prison; conman; fraud; rural communities
-
Mall School
A Team 4 hidden camera investigation exposed a system that allows disruptive students to get the same diploma as other children, even though they only have to put in half the number of hours. Many of the schools they attend are run by private non-profits that are not required to have certified teachers. The students only have to spend 15 hours a week in the classroom, which is about half as much as regular students. And when it's time to graduate, they get a diploma from their home high school, just like other students.
Tags: educations; teacher certification; high school education; private nonprofit organizations; disruptive students; contracting
-
The Financial Collapse
Among the findings in this package are: In February, Morgenson warned that the arcane contracts known as credit-default swaps were so volatile and explosive that they would "set off a chain reaction of losses at financial institutions." In May, she examined the moves by private investment firms to buy up hundreds of New York apartment buildings, betting that they could evict tenants and raise rents. In July, she reported on the enormous increase in consumer debt and the changes in the lending system that encouraged risky loans. In September, she dissected the small London Investment unit that had bedazzled the insurance giant AIG with its profits but soon brought it to its knees and helped trigger a widespread collapse. In November, she profiled the reckless executives who gambled on subprime home mortgages and led Merrill Lynch to its demise. In December, she held the credit-rating agencies to sharp account, in particular Moody's, showing how they had minimized or overlooked the dangers to investors.
Tags: AIG; credit-default swaps; Wall Street; Merill Lynch; Federal Reserve; columnists
-
Demoted to Private: America's Military Housing Disaster
Political patronage, the zeal to privatize and a failure at background checks led to a disaster for taxpayers and military families in Pentagon housing programs in six states. All three branches of the service gave 8,000 military houses and billion-dollar contracts to a company headed by a politically-connected Texan involved in a messy bankruptcy and a Connecticut property management firm that had been previously suspended from HUD housing projects because it diverted millions to its own uses.
Tags: military; housing; privatization; Pentagon; government contracts; corporate abuse; whistle-blower