Federal Times is proud to announce the Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalist honored us with two first-place Dateline Awards last night:
- My June 4, 2012 story “At GSA, almost everyone rates a bonus” received first prize for weekly investigative reporting. This story dove into bonus data across the government and uncovered how nearly 9 in 10 employees at the troubled General Services Administration — which had just been rocked by its Las Vegas conference scandal and revelations of lax bonus policies — received bonuses in 2011. The SPJ judges said the story’s “Interesting analysis of public records shows that even when times are tough, some federal agencies still take care of their own before taking care of the public.”
- My Aug. 15 story “IG investigating two VA conferences that cost a combined $5 million” won the top award for daily spot news. This is the online story that broke the news on the investigation into the Veterans Affairs Department’s two pricey human resources conferences in Orlando, Fla. in 2011. Our follow-up reporting detailed how VA spent $52,000 on a video parodying the movie “Patton” that was only shown twice, and brought down former Chief Human Capital Officer John Sepulveda. “Exposing public employees potentially receiving improper gifts in the course of spending millions of taxpayer dollars was a great scoop,” SPJ’s judges said.
My Nov. 5 story “1 in 6 retired lawmakers get six-figure pensions” was also a finalist in the weekly investigative reporting category.
Federal Times also won one Dateline Award in 2012, three in 2011, and two in 2009.
