Research

What’s in the database?

FEN maintains a team of talented researchers dedicated to uncovering the misuse of tax dollars by federal, state and local governments across the country, and to find examples of public sector institutions that spend taxpayer dollars wisely and well. Misuses of taxpayer dollars range from failure to follow responsible accounting and disclosure practices to the provision of pay and benefits to public sector workers that exceed reasonable standards. It also includes the use or misuse of taxpayer dollars on welfare and entitlement programs or in government contracting/procurement practices. FEN also monitors legislation and executive branch operational orders that are or may be detrimental to free enterprise. More than 5,000 individual entries had been added to the FEN database as of year-end 2009. An estimated 40 new entries are added every day. We believe this is the largest publicly-accessible database of its kind in existence.

The discovery of “Oh, My!”s

As researchers for FEN began compiling information about the pay and benefits disparity between government and those who work in the private sector, or learn of an outrageous misuse of taxpayer dollars, we'd hear an exclamation "Oh, My Gosh!" or “Oh, My!”, as they found another reference to shocking pay and benefits practices or other examples of waste or irresponsibility in the public sector. Countless examples led to a new classification..."Oh, My!” in our research database. Click here to read some examples from our database that will make you say, “Oh, My!”