POGO Receives Sunshine Award from Society of Professional Journalists

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) has been honored with the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sunshine Award “for its important contribution in the area of open government.” The presentation will be made at the SPJ’s President’s Installation Banquet on August 29 during the 2009 SPJ Convention and National Journalism Conference in Indianapolis.

While POGO works on a wide range of topics in government accountability and transparency, SPJ based its decision for this award on three specific projects: POGO’s work tracking and investigating the Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) for almost 15 years; its Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD), which monitors the federal government’s top contractors for fraud, environmental, ethics, and labor violations and other cases of verified or pending misconduct; and its notable work uncovering wasteful spending in the Air Force.

“We are extremely honored to be recognized by this distinguished organization of journalists. An important element of our work is collaborating with journalists’ investigative endeavors and through those partnerships better inform the public in how their government works,” said Danielle Brian, POGO’s Executive Director.