Recommendations
For the Legislative and Executive Branches
To address corruption risks to U.S. strategic objectives in current and future contingency operations, SIGAR recommends the following legislative and executive branch actions.
Legislative Branch Recommendations
1 |Congress should consider enacting legislation that makes clear that anticorruption is a national security priority in a contingency operation and requires an interagency anticorruption strategy, benchmarks, and annual reporting on implementation.
2 |Congress should consider enacting legislation that authorizes sanctions against foreign government officials or their associates who engage in corruption.
3 |Congress should consider requiring DOD, State, USAID, and other relevant executive agencies to establish a joint vendor vetting unit or other collaborative effort at the onset of any contingency operation to better vet contractors and subcontractors in the field.
Executive Branch Recommendations
4 |The NSC should establish an interagency task force to formulate policy and lead strategy on anticorruption in contingency operations.
5 |At the onset of any contingency operation, the Intelligence Community should analyze links between host government officials, corruption, criminality, trafficking, and terrorism. This baseline assessment should be updated regularly.
6 |DOD, State, USAID, and the Intelligence Community should each designate a senior anticorruption official to assist with strategic, operational, and tactical planning at headquarters at the onset of and throughout a contingency operation.
7 |DOD, State, and USAID should each establish an Office for Anticorruption to provide support, including advice on anticorruption methods, programming, and best practices, for personnel in contingency operations.
8 |The President should consider amending Executive Order 13581, which authorizes the listing of transnational criminal organizations on Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals list, to include individuals and entities who have engaged in corruption and transferred the proceeds abroad.
9 |In international engagements related to contingency operations, the U.S. government should bring high-level political commitment to bear against corruption to ensure anticorruption is a priority from the outset for the host government and international and regional partners.
10 |The State Department should place a high priority on reporting on corruption and how it threatens core U.S. interests, consistent with new anticorruption initiatives by the department and recommendations in the 2015 Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR).
11 |DOD, State, USAID, Treasury, Justice, and the Intelligence Community should increase anticorruption expertise to enable more effective strategies, practices, and programs in contingency operations.