Pro Publica Inc.

“Beginning in 2012, the organization began using adp totalsource, a professional employer organization ("peo"). As a professional employer organization, totalsource provides professional employer services to pro publica. In the peo relationship totalsource and pro publica share certain responsibilities and allocate other employer responsibilities between each other. Pro publica remains an employer of the worksite employees and totalsource is a co-employer of pro publica's employees. Pro publica has: direction and control over employees as is necessary to conduct its business, discharge and fiduciary responsibility it may have, or comply with any applicable licensure, regulatory or statutory requirement of pro publica. Control over the day to day job duties of employees and over the job sites at which, or from which employees perform services responsibility over the professional and licensed activities of employees including ensuring that employees are supervised by licensed individuals as required by law and for determining whether an applicant or employee meets pro publica's hiring criteria and is qualified to safely and completely perform his or her job totalsource reserves a right of direction and control over employees as is necessary to fulfill its obligations and provide its services under an agreement between pro publica, inc. And totalsource. Totalsource and pro publica, inc. Have a right to hire, discipline, and terminate employees as to each one's employment relationship with employees.”

“Pro publica has its form 990 prepared by an outside accounting firm and has established the following review process to ensure that the information reported is complete and accurate. When the form 990 has been prepared, reviewed by management and is ready to be filed with the internal revenue service, it's submitted electronically to members of pro publica's governing body for any comments prior to its submission. The governing body is provided with at least one week to review the prepared form 990 and provide their comments. Any comments are then grouped, summarized and provided to the audit committee for their review. Each issue is documented and addressed until the return is finalized and approved for filing.”

“Pro publica has a conflict of interest policy, which applies to all board members, officers, and employees. Each of the board members and officers are required sign to a conflict of interest policy annually. An interested person must disclose as soon as practicable to the secretary the existence of a potential conflict of interest and all material facts related to the conflict. If a board member or officer is uncertain about whether a conflict exists, he/she should report the possible conflict in all cases in which a critical external observer might reasonable perceive a conflict to exist. The board committee will determine if a conflict of interest exists. In the event that a conflict of interest arises, the board member or officer with whom the conflict pertains to is excluded from voting on the issue. He/she will leave the room and the other board members vote on the issue pertaining to that specific transaction. With respect to any board committee's discussion, decision, or actions involving transactions in which a board member or officer has a conflict of interest, the minutes of the board committee meeting will reflect the board's deliberations and voting process. In case of an interest party who is not a board member or officer, the president monitors and enforces the organization's compliance with its conflict of interest policy. If an employee has a conflict of interest, he/she employee could not participate in the decision making the conflicted transaction.”

“Salaries for the ceos, officers and key employees are set by the board. The board uses the services of a law firm (caplin & drysdale, who specialize in not for profit issues) for guidance on all matters of compensation. In 2012 caplin & drysdale updated the compensation study for three key employees. Caplin & drysdale studied compensation of select national newspapers and relied on their understanding of pro publica's operations and status in the field of journalism. The board established compensation for the ceo, officers and key employees using comparable data and determined that the salary is reasonable. Comparable data includes variety of information from journalism outlets and other not for profit organizations. Minutes of the board meetings are kept in file. This process was last completed in 2013.”

“The organization makes its form 990 available for public inspection as required under section 6104 of the internal revenue code. The return is posted on guidestar.org and other similar types of websites. In addition, the financial statements, conflict of interest policy, articles of incorporation, form 990, form 1023, and by-laws are also available upon written request, and on the organization's website (www.propublica.org).”

“In 2014, propublica stories produced such change in a wide range of important areas: -in march, just weeks after we began publishing stories in partnership with npr on the dysfunction of the pentagon's efforts to find and identify the bodies of missing soldiers from past wars, the secretary of defense announced an overhaul of the program. With an internal report calling for a "paradigm shift," the department pledged to make more modern use of dna, and to combine two feuding agencies into one. In june, the military decided to disinter the likely remains of army pvt. Bud kelder and 10 other men, who died while being held as pows in 1942. In july, a pentagon inspector general's draft report we obtained repeated many of the criticisms identified in the propublica/npr stories. In august, the official who had led the program was told he would lose his job. -new rules finalized in may give the department of health and human services authority to expel physicians from medicare if they engage in abusive prescribing. The new rules also allow the agency overseeing medicare to compel health providers to enroll in the program before ordering drugs for patients covered by medicare part d. Both rule changes follow reporting done last year by propublica documenting repeated failures of medicare oversight. -in december, six and a half years after a revelations in a propublica story led to the last-minute halting of a proposal to freely allow fracking of natural gas in new york state, the state finally concluded its review of such drilling and gov. Andrew cuomo announced a ban on fracking in new york. -a new law, passed by the california legislature in late august, in part in response to a propublica investigation, would hold companies legally responsible if temp agencies or subcontractors cheat temporary workers out of pay or endanger their safety. In december illinois regulators moved to revoke the business license of a check cashing store identified in our reporting. -sparked in part by propublica reporting published in june in partnership with npr, massachusetts in december issued new rules placing limits on physical restraints or isolation of students. -immediately after publication of an article on july 21 noting that many users of online sites were being tracked by an extremely persistent technique known as "canvas fingerprinting" produced by a firm called addthis, use of the technology was discontinued by the national security blog lawfare, the german digital marketer legatus and by youporn. In august, the tor browser began default blocking of the technology. -another new law in california, enacted in the aftermath of our series last year on lax oversight of assisted living facilities, permits the state to halt admissions to facilities that fail to correct serious violations or pay fines. -rules governing loans to service members under the military lending act are being tightened in response to reporting last year by propublica and public radio's marketplace. The new rules close loopholes in the law, tighten regulatory caps on interest rates for what amount to payday loans and no longer permit service members from having loan payments for personal property deducted from their pay. -after our reporting earlier this year about the circumstances behind illegal doping by sprinter tyson gay and the role of coach jon drummond, an arbitration panel in december banned drummond from track and field for eight years. -further reporting this year, published in partnership with the washington post, and focused on a company called usa discounters which lends widely to service members and then frequently sues them, seems to have prompted that firm to change its name to usa living after six u.s. Senators challenged its practices. Two other companies mentioned in the same story, settled an enforcement proceeding in december with the federal consumer financial protection bureau (cfpb), paying penalties, and agreeing to refunds and on limits to their abil”

“Pro publica has an audit committee that assumes responsibility for the oversight of the audit of its financial statements and for the selection of an independent accountant. The process has not changed from the prior year.”