About POGO's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD)

The government awards contracts to companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations.  In the absence of a centralized federal database listing instances of misconduct, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is providing such data.  We believe that it will lead to improved contracting decisions and public access to information about how the government spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money each year on goods and services. Report an instance of misconduct »

Monday, June 14, 2010

POGO and 14 other groups urge Congress to expand access to the government's contractor responsibility database, the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS). Meanwhile, POGO has obtained screen shots of FAPIIS.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Five former Blackwater/Xe employees, including former president Gary Jackson, are indicted by a North Carolina federal grand jury for violations of federal firearms laws and other charges.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

POGO issues a press alert announcing the publication of the final rule for the the federal government's contractor responsibility database, the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS). While certain aspects of FAPIIS have been improved, POGO is still disappointed most of its recommendations -- including making the database accessible to the public -- have not been adopted.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

POGO blogs about the criminal indictment and civil False Claims Act civil lawsuit accusing Agility (formerly known as Public Warehousing Company KSC) of grossly overcharging the U.S. government on contracts to provide food to U.S. troops in the Middle East.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

POGO blogs about "Stimulating a Heightened Awareness of Contractor Misconduct"

Monday, April 20, 2009

POGO has updated the FCMD with a new top 100 ranking based on FY2007 contract data. Contractors that have fallen out of the top 100 are still included in the database. They don't appear on the home page, but you can find them by clicking on the links in the archived 2006 ranking, by doing keyword searches or by sorting the data. For example, click on the "Federal Contract $" column heading on the home page to sort the ranking in ascending order of dollar amount. The first 30 contractors in that list will be numbers 101 through 130. Their names also appear in the "Contractor" pulldown menu on the left margin.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Lights! Cameras! Action!

Feeling perplexed by the FCMD? POGO has created 4 tutorial videos to show you the ropes. Get to the videos by clicking on the link at the top of the Methodology page or the "FCMD Help" link at the bottom of the page.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

POGO Expands FCMD Following Passage of Law Creating Contractor Responsibility Database

POGO has released an updated version of the Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD). The latest version of the FCMD features various format changes, new search and sort features, and a ranking that now includes the top 100 federal contractors.

A day earlier, President Bush signed into law the Fiscal Year 2009 National Defense Authorization Act [Public Law No. 110-417], section 872 of which calls for the establishment of a database of information regarding the integrity and performance of recipients of federal contracts and grants of over $500,000. The government database is modeled after the FCMD but with several critical differences: it will not be accessible to the public, it only includes misconduct pertaining to the award or performance of state or federal contracts or grants, and it only includes misconduct from the most recent five-year period.

Convincing the government to create a contractor responsibility database was not easy. Critics of contractor accountability fought against the proposal by providing false impressions, or "myths," about the state of government contracting and the need for such a database. POGO has compiled responses to the most common myths surrounding a federal contractor misconduct database.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

POGO Testified (Again) At House Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement (click here for hearing notice, witness list, and written testimony)

The Subcommittee's hearing, titled "Contracting Reform: Expert Recommendations and Pending Bills," focused on the recommendations made by the Acquisition Advisory Panel and proposals made in H.R. 3033 (the "Contractors and Federal Spending Accountability Act of 2007"), H.R. 4881 (the "Contracting and Tax Accountability Act of 2007") and H.R. 3928 (the "Government Contractor Accountability Act of 2007").

POGO General Counsel Scott Amey urged the Subcommittee and Congress to pass legislation that incorporates several key recommendations and findings of the Panel. POGO fully supports H.R. 3033, Representative Carolyn Maloney's (D-NY) contractor accountability bill, which would create a government-wide contractor responsibility database similar to POGO's FCMD. POGO also fully supports H.R. 4881, which would prohibit persons or companies with delinquent tax debts from obtaining federal contracts. POGO strongly urged the Subcommittee to include contractors that have delinquent tax debts in the responsibility database created by H.R. 3033.

POGO tepidly supports H.R. 3928 - a bill to publicly disclose salaries for covered private contractors. The bill, which would require contractors that receive more than 80 percent of their annual gross revenue from federal contracts to disclose the names and salaries of their most highly compensated officers, promotes openness. POGO believes that the public should have more information about private contractors that receive the vast majority of their revenue from federal taxpayers. However, POGO is concerned that the government might attempt to expand the limited scope of H.R. 3928, causing private companies to have to totally open their books.

The Subcommittee members seemed to support all three contractor accountability bills, except Representative Tom Davis (R - Va.), who stated that the bills' intent was to punish contractors rather than fix genuine problems in the contracting system.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Justice Department Releases Latest Fraud Recovery Numbers (click here)

The Justice Department, in prosecuting allegations of fraud against the federal government under the False Claims Act, recovered $2 billion in FY 2007, bringing the total amount recovered since 1986 to over $20 billion. The False Claims Act allows private citizen "whistleblowers" to sue federal contractors who defraud the government and receive a portion of the recovered monies. The government has the option of joining the suit.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Read POGO's commentary about the FCMD on Nieman Watchdog.org (click here)

Thursday, September 20, 2007

FedSpending.org Posts New Contract Information

OMB Watch's FedSpending.org has posted updated data for FY 2006/2007. POGO will soon update the FCMD using FedSpending.org's Top 100 ranking for FY 2006.

Monday, September 17, 2007

FCMD Milestone -- Misconduct Instance #400

Honeywell International Inc. is sentenced in worker death case.

Monday, August 13, 2007

POGO Responds to FCMD Criticism (click here)

Thursday, August 9, 2007

FCMD in the news:

- The Hill, July 19, 2007
- Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 19, 2007 [article no longer available online]
- Washington Technology, August 6, 2007
- Washington Technology, August 6, 2007 (Stan Soloway)
- Boston Herald, August 9, 2007

Thursday, July 19, 2007

POGO Testified at House Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement (click here for hearing notice, witness list, and written testimony)

The Subcommittee's hearing titled, "Federal Contracting: Do Poor Performers Keep Winning?" reviewed flaws in the federal contracting system that routinely allows contractors with poor performance or substandard responsibility records to keep doing business with the federal government. POGO General Counsel Scott Amey testified that the government doesn't have all information that it needs to prevent taxpayer dollars from going to risky contractors. One focal point of the hearing was Representative Carolyn Maloney's (D-NY) contractor accountability bill (H.R. 3033), which would create a government-wide contractor responsibility database with comprehensive information about contractors' criminal, civil, and administrative histories -- the same type of information that is included in POGO's FCMD.

Ranking Member Brian Bilbray (R-CA) questioned the inclusion of pending cases in POGO's database. POGO believes, however, that germane pending cases (which are placed in a side panel and they are not counted as instances of misconduct) should be included for government officials to see the full scope of a contractor's responsibility record. Moreover, POGO has sent letters to all 50 contractors detailing POGO's findings to give them an opportunity to respond for the record. POGO has received responses from a number of contractors, which are posted in the database and have assisted us in providing a more complete record.