[2] The Project first gained widespread attention in the early 1980s for publishing reports on "outrageously overpriced military spending", including a $7,600 coffee maker and a $436 hammer.

[8] The organization's board of directors includes Harper's Magazine editor Andrew Cockburn, law professor Lia Epperson, former judge Wallace B. Jefferson, lawyer Debra Katz, and political scientist Norman Ornstein.

The Inspector General investigated $500,000 in questionable expenses over three years, including $12,000 for Christmas parties, $25,000 for catered lunches, and $21,000 for the purchase and maintenance of office plants.

[11] POGO reported that in 1995 it was contacted by a woman who claimed her husband had died as the result of being exposed to toxic waste while working at Area 51.

[15][16][17][18] The reports claimed that the Department of the Interior's Mineral Management Service had a "sweetheart" relationship with oil companies that prevented the agency from going after the industry for moneys due.

[22] When POGO updated its database in 2010, it was reported that the organization had "found 642 instances since 1995 of misconduct by the top 100 firms, resulting in $18.7 billion in penalties.

"[23] In 2004, POGO filed a lawsuit against then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft for illegally retroactively classifying documents critical of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

[27] In 2008, POGO released a report that documented corruption and mismanagement in the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) royalty-in-kind program.

[42][43] Starting in 2011, POGO conducted an investigation into conflicts of interest of an advisory committee at the Food and Drug Administration that was reviewing the Yaz and Yasmin birth control pills.

Jerry Ensminger, advocated for openness regarding toxic water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

From 1953 until at least 1985, U.S. Marines and their families living at Camp Lejeune had used tap water that contained carcinogens and other harmful chemicals leaking from a nearby dump site for radioactive material.

[48] In 2017, the Department of Veterans' Affairs finalized rules to provide benefits for people who had been diagnosed with certain diseases as a result of living at Camp Lejeune.

[56] POGO, along with several other public interest groups, was involved in the investigation and trial of Scott Bloch, ex-head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC).

[59] POGO has worked to protect the rights of several specific whistleblowers—including Franz Gayl, who criticized military leaders' decision to not deliver protective armored vehicles called MRAPs to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis, who challenged military leaders' depictions of the "rosy" situation on the ground in Afghanistan—by sending letters to Congress and the agencies involved.

[60][61][62][63] In 1998, POGO, the Department of Justice, and other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit under the False Claims Act, suing the largest oil and gas companies operating in the United States.

Senator Frank Murkowski asked the General Accounting Office to investigate whether the payment represented "improper influence" on the Department of the Interior's new oil royalty valuation policy.

[74][75] In 2009, POGO received the Society of Professional Journalists' Sunshine Award for its work uncovering wasteful spending in the Air Force, investigating the Minerals Management Service at the Department of the Interior, and compiling the Federal Contractor Misconduct Database.