2024-10-30T07:21:39-07:00 2023-12-31 521639708 ACCOUNTING WITH DEBITS & CREDITS IN 2130 PRIEST BRIDGE DR STE 10 CROFTON MD 21114 990 2023-01-01 521343924 Government Accountability Project GOVE 2024570034 1612 K Street NW Washington DC 20006 James Harden CFO 2024570034 2024-10-17 true true Theresa Hutchinson P00176056 4107213946 2024-10-30 2023 2024-10-15 13:58:12Z X James Harden 1612 K Street NW Suite 808 Washington DC 20006 3450082 false X www.whistleblower.org X 1984 DC See Schedule O 8 7 23 60 0 0 2589957 2838028 335741 82525 14459 88054 3496 224355 2943653 3232962 0 0 2155178 1971715 49578 35972 165746 1382904 1272330 3587660 3280017 -644007 -47055 1138263 920881 472490 356252 665773 564629 X See Schedule O false false 2332383 0 0 PUBLIC HEALTH & CORPORATE/GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY Our Food Integrity Campaign (FIC) is a central component of our Public Health & Safety program. In 2023, we continued to be a leader in the efforts to identify and expose potentially deadly inspection short-cuts and worked both independently and with coalitions to put pressure on the USDA to decrease line speeds. Our efforts have been successful; line speeds have been greatly curtailed. Working with partners and volunteer attorneys, we have successfully challenged both proposed AG-Gag laws and final statutes in numerous states. We won Peta v. NC Farm Bureau, as co-plaintiffs. The law that was struck down was particularly problematic because it was written in a vague way that could be applied to any corporate venue. In 2023, we continued our #FairShake for farmers campaign, to raise awareness and solidarity for farmers fighting against corporate retaliation for whistleblowing as well as the importance of anti-trust enforcement. We collaborated with the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School to research if the anti-retaliation protections in the Packers and Stockyards Act can be expanded through rulemaking as opposed to legislation. To this end, we also collaborated with the Vermont Law School Clinic, growers from Mississippi and Texas Sanderson farms, and the USDA. Our Know Your Rights campaign continued, as we presented to USDA employees and managers at the Department of Agriculture Federal Research Center. We supported several pieces of legislation, which promises to hold big corporations responsible for disaster mitigation and put an end to line line speed increases and company self-inspection models. Other pending legislation includes Farm System Reform Act; Voice for Farm Workers Act; and Protecting Americas Meatpacking Workers Act. We published our issue brief Raising Voices, Protecting Lives: Whistleblowers at the Intersection of Oversight Failures in the Immigration System and Food Production Industry after reports of immigrant minors released to dangerous and unlawful situation of child labor. We worked with Johns Hopkins University on a policy program called The Center for Law & Ethics in Animal Research, or CLEAR. We continue to represent a client through this program who as a research scientist blew the whistle on animal welfare compliance violations at a major research university. We researched and filed an amicus brief in the US Supreme Court on behalf of US Senators Charles Grassley and Ron Wyden to contest a corporate whistleblower case decision by the Federal Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit which upended the burdens of proof in nearly every federal whistleblower law in the nation, including Sarbanes Oxley, the Safe Food Modernization Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, and over twenty other laws protecting whistleblowers who expose violations of law, environmental dangers, public health threats, worker safety endangerment, and government fraud. The unacceptable burden of proof established by the panel of judges would force the whistleblower to prove that the employer had acted out of malice in retaliating against the employee for their whistleblowing. In February 2023 the Court overturned the local court ruling in an unanimous decision. 203170 0 0 ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE In 2023, our long running efforts to push EPA to update their outdated National Contingency Plan finally succeeded, and as a result, EPA is examining the impacts of dispersants during oil spills. In a stunning victory for us and our allies, the manufacturer of Corexit has decided to no longer manufacture it. Since the catastrophic train derailment in East Palestine in early 2023 and the subsequent burn of train cars carrying toxic chemicals, we launched an in-depth investigation into the contamination of the area, the sickening of residents, and the attempts by Norfolk Southern and EPA to mislead the public about the disaster. We have collaborated with independent expert Scott Smith, who has found significantly higher levels of toxins throughout the community than the contractors for the railway company reported. We have represented whistleblower Dr. Robert Kroutil, a distinguished scientist and the designer of the software used in the fights over East Palestine as well as over 180 other missions. He reported that the EPA ordered operators to turn off the chemical detectors when the plane flew over creeks and waterways, only deployed the plane after the toxic plume dissipated, only allowed data collection for seven minutes when usually it would collect data for 100 minutes or longer, misled Congress when it reported that delays in collection were because of weather conditions, and used the resulting failure of ASPECT engineers to detect significant contamination to declare that it was safe for residents to return to their homes. We have filed extensive FOIA requests to EPA and a complaint to the EPA Office of Inspector General. We filed a successful lawsuit to expedite the processing of our East Palestine FOIA document requests and to waive fees. 218825 0 0 INTERNATIONAL We presented an amicus brief for a World Health Organization (WHO) whistleblower who was threatened with a retaliatory firing for writing a report which truthfully stated that Italys Pandemic Plan had not been updated since 2006. WHO leadership attempted to cover up the failure to update Italys Pandemic Plan in 2016, as it should have been, by threatening to fire the whistleblower if they did not falsely state that the plan had been updated. We represented a whistleblower at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), who disclosed that hundreds of millions of dollars from ADB were used for military and other non-humanitarian purposes or simply stolen by government ministers in Pakistan. He experienced retaliation, but we have recently settled this case successfully. We participated in a USAID-funded project as a subcontractor in Malaysia. GAP worked with project partners including Combatting corruption and Cronyism (C4 Center), the National Union of Malaysian Islamic Students (PKPIM), National Oversight Whistleblowing (NOW), and Transparency International-Malaysia to provide international expertise on whistleblowing, to provide external perspectives on reforms, and to help them increase public engagement. We assisted in drafting proposed legislation in over a dozen countries, including Ghana, Serbia,Liberia, Canada, and Tunisia. We updated a co-publication with the International Bar Association, a report called Are Whistleblowing Laws Working? A Global Study of Whistleblower Protection Litigation, which tracks the records of whistleblower laws in 38 countries and provides an unprecedented effort to understand the successes and shortcomings of whistleblower protection legislation worldwide, following a proliferation of laws in recent decades. International Program Director Samantha Feinstein continued to serve as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the UNCAC Coalition - Association for the Implementation of the UN Convention against Corruption. We participated in multiple USAID-funded projects in Serbia, including in collaboration with Pitaljka, a whistleblowing platform based in Belgrade that combines journalism and legal expertise, to conduct a series of trainings for state and local government agencies in Serbia. We participated in a USAID-funded project in Ukraine as a subcontractor, where we briefed a network of NGOs on whistleblowing law, critiqued language for whistleblower reform legislation, met and counseled Ukrainian whistleblowers, conducted advocacy to earn President Zelenskys veto of a poison pill whistleblower bill. We also conducted three training courses of judges and officials on the new whistleblower law and best practices for working with whistleblowers. We participated in a USAID-funded project in Liberia as a subcontractor, where we made recommendations to strengthen its whistleblower law and engaged in advocacy with the advisor to the President and the Attorney General and Parliamentary Leaders. We implemented a NATO-funded research project called Whistling at the Fake with a subgrant from Manchester Metropolitan University. As part of this project, International Director Samantha Feinstein authored a report titled The crucial role of whistleblowers in countering disinformation. We played a starring role at the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) Conference in Atlanta in December. There were 2000 delegates from 160 nations and 1000 attendees from global NGO organizations. Working with the Serbian government, we helped develop a landmark resolution to safeguard individuals who expose corruption and related offenses to government authorities. Our International Program Director, Samantha Feinstein, who co-chairs the UN committee charged with helping to implement the International Convention Against Corruption, played a a pivotal role in developing and advocating for the resolution, testifying in favor of it, and ensuring that whistleblower protection remains a central topic of global dialogue when addressing corruption. This resolution - a huge milestone for us - marks a significant advancement in global efforts to protect reporting persons. It reinforces international commitments to transparency, training, and technical assistance while advocating for inclusive and confidential reporting channels. Importantly too it adopted an objective standard - reasonable belief -- for recognizing the legitimacy of whistleblower complaints rather than a good faith belief which requires that whistleblowers be interrogated about their motives in bringing forth concerns. The resolution has now established an international standard in whistleblower rights, a significant step forward in advancing whistleblower rights internationally as well as domestically. 24202 0 0 Other miscellaneous projects 24202 0 0 2778580 true true false true false false false false true false true false false true true true true false false false false false false true false false false false false true false false false false false false false false true false false false false false false false false true 14 0 true 23 true false false false false false false false false false false X 8 7 false false false false false false false true true false false true true true true true true true true false AK AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC FL GA IL KS KY ME MD MA MI MN MO MS NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC TN UT VA WA WV WI X X X JAMES HARDEN 2024570034 1612 K ST NW 808 WASHINGTON DC 20006 Louis Clark Executive Director &CEO 50.00 X X X 132169 0 33538 Michael Termini Chief of Staff & Chief Operating Officer 50.00 X 126165 0 30212 Karen Gray General Counsel 50.00 X 117736 0 16020 James Harden Chief Financial Officer 50.00 X 103164 0 20496 Jack Kolar Litigation Director 50.00 X 107575 0 14543 Thomas Devine Legal Director 50.00 X X 113464 0 22238 Richard Salzman Chair 2.00 X X 0 0 0 Susan Carle Board Member 2.00 X 0 0 0 Getulio P Carvalho Board Member 2.00 X 0 0 0 Mark Cohen Board Member 2.00 X 0 0 0 Patrice McDermott Board Member 2.00 X 0 0 0 Kirke Kickingbird Board Member 2.00 X 0 0 0 Bradford Weeks Board Member 2.00 X 0 0 0 700273 0 137047 6 false true false David Z Seide 5301 Burling Terrace Bethesda MD 20814 Legal Counsel 171429 TM Guyer Friends PC 116 Mistletoe Street Medford OR 97501 Legal Counsel 108000 2 2838028 71707 2838028 Attorney Fees 541110 82525 0 0 Consulting Service Rev 541110 0 0 0 82525 14174 0 14174 291000 217120 73880 73880 0 0 73880 Other Income 900099 224355 224355 0 0 224355 3232962 306880 0 88054 133900 116248 7821 9831 1438918 1184083 187106 67729 63190 52575 7486 3129 211791 175572 25551 10668 123916 102734 14993 6189 341419 341419 0 0 21165 15677 4438 1050 35972 35972 335081 311297 23784 0 566 566 0 0 10278 8506 1241 531 33051 27912 3614 1525 172835 143454 20842 8539 15532 13032 185 2315 4035 0 4035 0 7084 5639 1009 436 26113 21657 3152 1304 Deposition and Arbitration 75404 64972 7349 3083 Direct Mail 88762 74532 9842 4388 Dues & Subscriptions 15968 11519 859 3590 Equipment & Repairs 19290 16419 2144 727 105747 90767 10240 4740 3280017 2778580 335691 165746 X 100305 62769 0 37536 218582 340489 38793 12838 107909 237302 229464 35905 25742 15062 10163 444293 163533 184231 56485 1138263 920881 119629 127546 32518 64982 165016 147431 155327 16293 472490 356252 X 45773 -155371 620000 720000 665773 564629 1138263 920881 -47055 -54089 X false true X true false X 0 3319759 3519239 3186740 2589957 2838028 15453723 0 0 3319759 3519239 3186740 2589957 2838028 15453723 5797040 9656683 30591 21052 14614 15570 14174 96001 0 0 15549724 917893 0.62100 0.71220 X 0 0 0 RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED 6615 28357 34972 3241010 3275982 313799 78450 0 0 329395 347596 329383 313799 1320173 1980260 33343 50550 46980 34972 165845 82349 86899 82346 78450 330044 495066 7725 8564 7623 6615 30527 false true 0 0 29290 23242 6048 6615 2500 4115 10163 GAP Litigation Fund 37055 Deposits 3959 Liability-Operating Lease Non Current LT 0 Liability-Copier Non Current LT 15471 56485 Fiscal sponsorship liability 0 Rights of use asset-Operating lease Non-Current 0 Rights of Use assets-Copier Lease Non-Current 16293 16293 X 3144908 -54089 -54089 3198997 3198997 3280017 3280017 3280017 Pt IV, Line 2b Escrow Liability Arrangement Explanation Pt IV, Line 2b When the organization takes a case, a deposit is sometimes requested of the client to cover legal expenses. We maintain a separate client trust bank account to hold these funds. If necessary to cover expenses, GAP writes a check from this account, and the related trust account is also reduced to match the available balance for each client. Pt X, Line 2 GAP has adopted the accounting of uncertainty in income taxes as required by the Income Taxes Topic (Topic 740) of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification. Topic 740 requires GAP to determine whether a tax position is more likely than not to be sustained upon examination by the applicable taxing authority, including resolution of any related appeals or litigation processes, based on the technical merits of the position. The tax benefit to be recognized is measured as the largest amount of benefit that is more than fifty percent likely of being realized upon ultimate settlement which could result in GAP recording a tax liability that would reduce GAPs net assets. X X X X true AB Data LTD Fundraising false 177691 48193 129498 Hudson Bay Co of IL Fundraising false 15238 9065 6173 192929 57258 135671 All States false false false false false false false false false Louis Clark 132169 0 0 0 0 0 6695 0 26843 0 165707 0 0 0 Michael Termini 126165 0 0 0 0 0 3782 0 26430 0 156377 0 0 0 X 3 71707 Fair Market Value on date of gift 0 false true true Pt I Line 32b We have a brokerage firm that stock gifts are transferred to and then our policy is to sell them immediately. Other Organizations Mission - Government Accountability Project (GAP) is a 47-year-old non-profit public interest organization that promotes government and corporate accountability by advancing occupational free speech, defending whistleblowers, and empowering citizen activists. GAP is the worlds leading whistleblower protection organization. Other Form 990, Part I, Line 6 - Volunteers and interns provide a wide range of services for the organization, including researching whistleblowing laws and cases, providing communications assistance and other vital help to the organization Pt VI, Line 11b The draft 990 is reviewed by the Executive Director/CEO and the Finance Director as well as every member of the board and changes are incorporated into the final draft. Pt VI, Line 12c Annually the board of directors is requested to update and sign our conflict of interest questionnaire, and report possible conflicts to the chair of the board whenever they are detected or observed. Pt VI, Line 15a The Board Chair and Director supervised an independent written and oral performance evaluation of Executive Director, and together they approve the salary increase. Pt VI, Line 15b Annual performance evaluations are performed by their supervisors and then reviewed by the Executive Director. Pt VI, Line 19 Audited financial statements are posted on GAPs website. GAPs conflict of interest is also posted on our website. Form 990, Part III, Line 4d Other miscellaneous projects 24202. 0. 0. Form 990, Part IX, Line 11g Consultants 335081. 311297. 23784. 0.