Pork-o-polis? Federal largesse in NC District 4
Wednesday, October 11th, 2006Wonder what federal monies wend their ways back to North Carolina? To local District 4?
The new online database of federal transactions, FedSpending.org, is now open for business.
A collaboration between the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), Zephyr Teachout’s Sunlight Foundation and the conservative OMB Watch, the idea is to promote greater access for persnickety citizens like CitizenWill.
The Sunlight Foundation covers our Dollarocracy.
Let’s turn first to the subject of government contracts and grants. The new database, compiled and put on the web by OMB Watch at fedspending.org, covers all federal contracts and grants issued between the years 2000 and 2005. Just how much money are we talking about here? More than $12 trillion in taxpayer money – that’s trillion with a T, not billion with a B. Not even Bill Gates has that kind of money (though naturally his company did get its share of the pie).
You can search through the millions of records by recipient name, by government agency – even by congressional district. And once you’ve zeroed in on a particular contractor, you can see at a glance which goods and services they provided to the government, and what proportion of the contracts they won were through full and open competition versus no-bid awards.
Here’s District 4 2000-2005 federal contracts.
Sample:
| Parent Company Name | Contractor Name(s) | Total Amount (for this search) |
| RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE | RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE; RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE IN; RTI; SCI APPLIC INTERNATL CORP.; RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE (DUNS 004868105); RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE I | $186,718,197 |
| DUKE UNIVERSITY | DUKE UNIVERSITY; DUKE UNIV; DUKE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER; OTA DAVID; DUKE UNIVERSITY (6541); DUKE UNIVERSITY CHPRE; DUKE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CTR.; TSI MASON LABORATORIES; DUKE UNIVERSITY (0000) | $40,865,839 |
| UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA SYSTEM | UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA A; UNIVERSITY NC AT CHAPEL HILL; UNIVERSITY NC AT WILMINGTON; UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL; UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL (1393); OFFICE OF SP | $15,158,037 |
| RHO, INC. | RHO FEDERAL SYSTEMS DIVISION | $13,486,940 |
| MCKESSON CORPORATION | MCKESSON HBOC INCORPORATED; MCKESSON CORPORATION; MC KESSON HBOC, INC; Mckesson Pharmaceutical; MCKESSON CORPORATION (7296); MCKESSON CORPORATION DELAWARE; MCKESSON AUTOMATION SYSTEMS IN; MCKESSON MED | $9,920,196 |
| CONSTELLA GROUP, INC | ANALYTICAL SCIENCES INC; CONSTELLA GROUP, LLC; UNITED INFORMATION SYSTEMS, IN; CONSTELLA GROUP LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY; CONSTELLO GROUP, INC. FORMERLY; SSC LARGE BUSINESS-NORTH CAROL; GYMR, LLC.; CO | $9,299,292 |
| PARADIGM GENETICS, INC. | ICORIA INCORPORATED; PARADIGM GENETICS, INC | $6,883,656 |
| CODA RESEARCH INC | CODA RESEARCH INC.; CODA, INC. | $6,041,000 |
| DUKE ENERGY CORP. | DUKE ENERGY CORPORATION; AMERESCOSOLUTIONS, INC; DUKE ENERGY CORPROATION; Ameresco Solutions, Inc.; DUKE SOLUTIONS INC | $5,234,898 |
| HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. | HEWLETT PACKARD COMPANY (3067); HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY; HEWLETT PACKARD COMPANY (1436); COMPAQ COMPUTER CORPORATION; COMPAQ FEDERAL LLC; DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION; COMPUSA INC; AGILENT TECHNOLOGI | $4,451,695 |
| ALION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY | ALION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; ALION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY C; Alion Science & Techn.; IIT RESEARCH INSTITUTE | $4,079,767 |
| LIBERTY ANALYTICAL CORPORATION | LIBERTY ANALYTICAL CORPORATION | $3,613,559 |
| NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV | NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV; NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSIT; NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY; NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY (0756); N C STATE UNIVERSITY; ITRE/NC STATE UNIVERSITY; NORTH CAROLINA STATE | $3,401,233 |
| MCNEIL TECHNOLOGIES, INC. | MC NEIL TECHNOLOGIES, INC; MC NEIL TECHNOLOGIES INCORPORATED (5583); MCNEIL TECHNOLOGIES, INC; Research and Evaluation Associates, Inc. | $3,052,046 |
| TRC COMPANIES INC | MARIAH TRC ASSOCIATES INC; TRC ENVIRONMENTAL CORPORATION; LOWNEY ASSOCIATES; TRC MARIAH ASSOCIATES INC. | $2,979,438 |
| RAO ENTERPRISES INC | INTEGRATED LABORATORY SYSTEMS,; ILS | $2,912,453 |
| HEALTH DECISIONS, INC. | HEALTH DECISIONS, INC. | $2,452,978 |
By the way, OMBWatch might disagree with my characterization of their organization.
It does bill itself as “a nonprofit government watchdog organization located in Washington, DC. Our mission is to promote open government, accountability and citizen participation” yet the first squib on their sidebar shouts “Save the Estate Tax! Let your senators know you don’t want them to take the bait–keep the estate tax intact.”
Come on!
