1.1 Mission Employment
Overseas postings and deployments often result in additional remuneration and more attractive professional development opportunities, making mission employment at key risk area for corruption in military operations.
Risk Areas
1.2 Sustainment and Contracting
Explanation of risk area
Procurement has long been identified as a significant area of corruption risks; the World Bank, for example, has estimated that public contract awards worth about $1.5 trillion are influenced by corrupt practices. Risks affecting procurement are magnified by large sums of money involved, by the complexity of tender processes, and by officials’ discretionary authority. These risks are magnified in operational environments, which usually feature significant financial flows combined with tighter timelines, a greater degree of outsourcing, and fewer checks and balances. In these environments, risks of fraud, corruption, and theft, committed by both mission officials and contractors, all increase.
Corrupt practices in mission forces are often connected to corrupt networks within the host nation, facilitating and benefitting from larger corruption schemes, from illegal trade to diversion of sustainment-related funding that benefits criminal networks or mission adversaries. Understanding and acknowledging the mission’s position in the host nation and the risks that it can create and reinforce is key to mitigating attendant corruption risks.
Examples
Case Study: Corruption and UN peace operations
Fuel diversion: UNMIL
In early 2017, the UN Mission to Liberia (UNMIL) Fuel Unit reported 34 cases of suspected fraud involving a total loss of 92,000 litres of fuel worth approximately $64,000. Mission personnel appear to have diverted fuel resources through excessive refuelling and theft of bulk fuel.
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Bribery and fuel theft: Afghanistan
In U.S. v Hightower, a military officer was found guilty of accepting bribes in return for allowing a host nation company to steal fuel. Fuel, an indispensable commodity, was the subject of other criminal cases related to deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and reported by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. As a key commodity, fuel appears to have been at risk of diversion in most operations.
View external case studyIndicators & Warnings
Bypassing key tender procedures
Designing bids for unnecessary or inappropriate items
Vague or biased specifications and selection criteria in the bids
Narrow bid specifications, corresponding to one company’s product features
Regular use of ‘exceptional’ or ‘urgent’ orders without adequate rationale
Contracting officers’ or implementers’ insistence on dealing with particular suppliers
Awarding contracts unfavourable to the contracting entity
Bypassing key contract implementation procedures such as audits
Lack of documentation of key meetings from contracting officers, implementers, and/or auditors
Acceptance of agents, intermediaries or subcontractors, especially when their tasks are unclear or their work history inadequate
Continued acceptance of low-quality or delayed work
Sequential purchases from the same supplier just under a threshold that would necessitate an audit
Significantly higher or lower use of materiel than estimated
Excessive stocks of products, either because it sits unused or because wrong quantities have been delivered
Product substitution: products of lower quality than foreseen are delivered
Poor product quality and/or product failure
Changes in orders or product characteristics at short notice
Reports of wrongdoing
Risk Areas within Risk Pathway 1. Corruption in mission forces
1.2 Sustainment and Contracting
The World Bank estimates that public contract awards of about $1.5 trillion are influenced by corruption. Risks affecting procurement are magnified in operational environments due to tight timelines, high levels of outsourcing and fewer checks and balances.
Explore Risk Area
Mitigations within Risk Pathway 1. Corruption in mission forces
These are some of the measures that can be applied by national defence institutions in preparing their troops for deployment. Many – from the codification of standards, training, and an internal investigative structure – can also be used by international organisations to prepare national contingents for deployment, and to set requirements for troop contributing countries.
7. Working with civil society: from political inclusion to tactical cooperation
7.2 Tactical cooperation: project oversight
Cooperation with civil society could help increase the likelihood of whistleblower reports of wrongdoing among mission personnel, and could help provide an additional layer of oversight, where possible, in mission sustainment and reconstruction contracts.
9. Investing in monitoring and oversight
9.1 Overseeing donor funds: Inspector General systems
9.4 Supporting external oversight bodies
Better monitoring and oversight of mission funds and activities, as well as strengthening host nation and external oversight, can help diminish the opportunities for corruption in mission activities.
11. Mitigating corruption in sustainment and contracting
11.1 Making sustainment and contracting ‘Commander’s business’
11.2 Ensuring appropriate levels of expertise among mission personnel
11.3 Promoting competition: disseminating information about tenders
11.4 Promoting competition: merit- and integrity-based requirements
11.5 Performing supply chain due diligence
11.6 Limited reliance on and control of subcontractors, agents and intermediaries
11.7 Training and awareness raising for contractors and subcontractors
11.8 Transparency in contracting
11.9 Contract oversight
Apply the corruption mitigation measures in mission sustainment to diminish the chances of mission personnel engaging in corrupt practices.