Scope and Methods
POGO’s range of investigations includes national defense and homeland security, nuclear security issues, abuse in government contracting, excessive secrecy that fails to consider the public interest, and the revolving door phenomenon in Congress and across government agencies. POGO uses investigative journalism techniques to shed light on the government's activities, including working with whistleblowers and anonymous sources and accessing information through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). POGO’s Federal Contractor Misconduct Database is often used by investigative journalists and others who are interested in contractor misconduct.
Corporate whistleblowers and government insiders bring POGO many of its investigative topics. POGO informs the public of its findings, mainly through reports that contain extensive documentation and recommendations for how to solve the problems identified. Once a report has been released, more insiders usually approach POGO to provide further documentation and information.
In 2006, POGO launched its Congressional Oversight Training Series (COTS), which consists of monthly seminars on Capitol Hill for Congressional staffers and employees of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and Government Accountability Office (GAO). The seminars focus on how to conduct oversight of government contractors and various federal agencies.
Read more about this topic: Project On Government Oversight
Famous quotes containing the words scope and, scope and/or methods:
“A country survives its legislation. That truth should not comfort the conservative nor depress the radical. For it means that public policy can enlarge its scope and increase its audacity, can try big experiments without trembling too much over the result. This nation could enter upon the most radical experiments and could afford to fail in them.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of his abilities, and for no more, and none can tell whose sphere is the largest.”
—Gail Hamilton (1833–1896)
“I think it is a wise course for laborers to unite to defend their interests.... I think the employer who declines to deal with organized labor and to recognize it as a proper element in the settlement of wage controversies is behind the times.... Of course, when organized labor permits itself to sympathize with violent methods or undue duress, it is not entitled to our sympathy.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)