Personnel Risk:
Low
Score:
76.7/100
Leadership Behaviour
Q34
17/100
Do the Defence Ministry, Defence Minister, Chiefs of Defence, and Single Service Chiefs publicly commit, through, for example, speeches, media interviews, or political mandates, to anti-corruption and integrity measures?
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The Standards of Conduct Office within the DoD publishes statements from the Secretaries of Defense relating to integrity [1]. Under the Trump administration (which…
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No public statements could be found on the issue of anti-corruption or ethics and integrity, which covers the research period of this index (2015-2020)…
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No publicly available unit-level communications could be found.
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Q35
100/100
Are there effective measures in place for personnel found to have taken part in forms of bribery and corruption, and is there evidence that these measures are being carried out?
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Bribery is criminalised under Title 18 of the US Code [1], which applies to all public officials (including employees of any department, agency or…
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There do not seem to be any statistics published on the number of corruption or bribery cases investigated by the DCIS, however, the annual…
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Q36
58/100
Is whistleblowing encouraged by the government, and are whistle-blowers in military and defence ministries afforded adequate protection from reprisal for reporting evidence of corruption, in both law and practice?
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The ‘Military Whistleblower Protection Act’ of 1988 is the main legislation on whistleblowing in the military, which was subsequently broadened and strengthened by the…
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The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General is mandated to detect and deter fraud, waste and abuse in the DoD [1] and, as…
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As mentioned, the GAO 2019 report on the DoD’s handling of whistleblower confidentiality deemed that the DoDIG did not have sufficient mechanisms in place…
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Q37
75/100
Is special attention paid to the selection, time in post, and oversight of personnel in sensitive positions, including officials and personnel in defence procurement, contracting, financial management, and commercial management?
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The Office of Personnel Management runs the ‘Position Designation Automated Tool’ (PDT), which establishes risk levels for positions where the duties and responsibilities may…
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There is not enough information to score this indicator. Although it is assumed that more stringent vetting processes would take place, no clear policy…
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The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCAS) undertakes investigations to determine suitability for positions, but the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is the Suitability…
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Payroll, Promotions, Appointments, Rewards
Q38
92/100
Is the number of civilian and military personnel accurately known and publicly available?
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The number of military and civilian personnel permanently assigned to the DoD is updated on a quarterly basis and can be found on the…
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The Department of Defense releases monthly data on active-duty personnel by rank/grade. This data is broken down by service and rank, including cadets. It…
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There have been no recorded instances of ghost soldiers in the US military in the past five years, according to a media search.
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Q39
75/100
Are pay rates and allowances for civilian and military personnel openly published?
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The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), which provides the payment services of the DoD, produces annual tables for active and reserve military personnel…
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The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) and the Military Compensation websites both provide details on the allowances that military personnel can receive [1,2].…
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Q40
83/100
Do personnel receive the correct pay on time, and is the system of payment well-established, routine, and published?
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There have been no recorded instances of pay being delayed in the last five years. However, there have been a number of cases of…
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There have been a few cases of improper pay. For example, in 2016, the DoD demanded that the California National Guard soldiers who served…
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Pay tables are published annually, detailing salaries disaggregated by rank [1]. The Defence Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) also publishes allowance tables, which are…
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Q41
67/100
Is there an established, independent, transparent, and objective appointment system for the selection of military personnel at middle and top management level?
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With regard to top management, the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are appointed by the President, with the…
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The top management positions mentioned above are selected by the President with the consent of the Senate [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. There is no evidence that process…
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Given that top management roles are nominated by the President first before going through congressional hearings, information on the nomination is made public through…
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Q42
75/100
Are personnel promoted through an objective, meritocratic process? Such a process would include promotion boards outside of the command chain, strong formal appraisal processes, and independent oversight.
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The General Military Law outlines the requirements necessary for certain promotions, such as time in previous post [1,2]. If the promotion is competitive, selection…
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With regard to exceptions to promotions, there are two considerations. First, the U.S. Army authorises battlefield promotions in designated combat areas for sergeants and…
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In the case of the Navy, promotions to grade of Captain, Commander, Lieutenant Commander, Lieutenant and Chief Warrant Officers are published. These publications include…
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In the case of the Army, the portal ‘My Board File’ is updated on a weekly basis and provides information 60 days in advance…
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Conscription and Recruitment
Q43
NA/100
Where compulsory conscription occurs, is there a policy of not accepting bribes for avoiding conscription? Are there appropriate procedures in place to deal with such bribery, and are they applied?
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The US military has been volunteer-based since 1973, when the military draft stopped being used as a system of recruitment. The government, however, maintains…
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This indicator is scored ‘Not Applicable’ as compulsory conscription does not occur.
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This indicator is scored ‘Not Applicable’ as compulsory conscription does not occur.
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Q44
92/100
is there a policy of refusing bribes to gain preferred postings? Are there appropriate procedures in place to deal with such bribery, and are they applied?
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According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, any person who procures their enlistment or appointment in the armed forces through false representation shall…
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The Uniform Code of Military Justice does not specify sanctions, leaving it to the discretion of the court-martial [1,2]. As outlined in 44A, the…
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The Criminal Investigations record published by the DoD Inspector General includes details of charges against defence personnel relating to bribery and other offences. In…
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Salary Chain
Civilian and military pay is disbursed by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), which is separate from the chain of command [1]. The…
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Values and Standards
Q46
100/100
Is there a Code of Conduct for all military personnel that includes, but is not limited to, guidance with respect to bribery, gifts and hospitality, conflicts of interest, and post-separation activities? Is there evidence that breaches of the Code of Conduct are effectively addressed?
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The DoD Joint Ethics Regulation and ‘Standards of Conduct’ are applicable to all DoD civilian employees; any active duty regular or reserve military officer;…
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The Joint Ethics Regulation and Standards of Ethical Conduct are publicly available [1,2]. Each new employee, in addition to their training as outlined in…
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The ‘Standards of Conduct’ outline the penalties and sanctions for violating the rules prescribed [1]. There is no available information regarding the extent of…
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Within 90 days of entering on duty for new DoD employees and within 180 days of entering active duty for enlisted members of the…
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Q47
100/100
Is there a Code of Conduct for all civilian personnel that includes, but is not limited to, guidance with respect to bribery, gifts and hospitality, conflicts of interest, and post-separation activities? Is there evidence that breaches of the Code of Conduct are effectively addressed?
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The Office of Government Ethics oversees the ethics programme for the executive branch, with a specific focus on financial conflicts of interest [1]. All…
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The Standards of Ethical Conduct is publicly available [1]. Each new employee must receive, in addition to their training as outlined in 47D, the…
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There is not enough information to score this indicator. If the Director of OGE becomes concerned about violations of noncriminal government ethics law or…
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Each new employee of the executive branch who is subject to the Standards of Conduct must complete initial ethics training within 3 months of…
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Q48
50/100
Does regular anti-corruption training take place for military and civilian personnel?
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The DoD’s Joint Ethics Regulation (JER) guides and regulates all the US joint ethics training programmes [1]. The JER require that all DoD employees,…
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The JER require that all DoD employees, including both civilian and military personnel, receive annual ethics training (11-200), although only one hour of training…
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It remains unclear to what extent anti-corruption is covered in the DoD’s more general ethics and fraud, waste and abuse training. Nevertheless, aside from…
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Q49
67/100
Is there a policy to make public outcomes of the prosecution of defence services personnel for corrupt activities, and is there evidence of effective prosecutions in recent years?
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During the research period of 2015-2020, there was no policy which mandated the various military justice systems to publish details on the prosecution of…
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As noted above, each of the branches of the military makes details relating to courts-martial of their own service members public independently. It appears…
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Given the lengthy dockets and reports published by each of the armed services, as outlined above, it seems that prosecutions are frequent. With regard…
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Q50
NEI/100
Are there effective measures in place to discourage facilitation payments (which are illegal in almost all countries)?
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The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) makes an exception for facilitation payments, in which companies can make facilitation payments to foreign officials for ‘routine…
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There is not enough information to score this indicator. As noted in 35B, there are no publicly available statistics on the enforcement of anti-bribery…
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There is not enough information to score this indicator; very little data regarding the prevalence of facilitation payments exists. Given their nature, it seems…
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