Key Findings:

• The Center for Public Integrity’s report on Defense Department contracting found that nearly $362 billion was awarded to companies without any competitive bidding, accounting for more than 40 percent of Pentagon contracting from 1998 to 2004.

• Half of the department’s budget has gone to pay outside contractors, instead of paying for direct costs like payroll for the armed services. Many of these contractors (the Center found 737 that won at least $100 million in contracts) were also donors to political candidates.

• The investigation looks into how these contracts are awarded and how many and which kinds of contracts are competitively bid. Every company that received more than $100 million in contracts is profiled, detailing their total contract dollars, the types of contracts they won, and what competition — if any — they faced.