CORRUPTION IN CONFLICT

APPENDIX A
METHODOLOGY
SIGAR conducts its lessons learned program under the authority of Public Law
110-181 and the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, and in accordance
with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency’s Quality
Standards for Federal Offices of Inspector General (commonly referred to as “the
Silver Book”). These standards require that we carry out our work with integrity,
objectivity, and independence, and provide information that is factually accurate
and reliable. SIGAR’s lessons learned reports are broad in scope and based on
a wide range of source material. To achieve the goal of high quality and to help
ensure our reports are factually accurate and reliable, SIGAR’s lessons learned
reports are subject to extensive review by subject matter experts and relevant
U.S. agencies.
The Corruption in Conflict research team consulted a wide array of sources,
including publicly available material, interviews, and government agency
documents. We also drew from SIGAR’s own work, embodied in quarterly reports
to Congress, investigations, audits, inspections, and special project reports.
Much of the research team’s documentary research focused on publicly available
material, including reports by DOD, State, USAID, GAO, Congressional Research
Service, congressional committees, and congressionally chartered commissions.
The team also consulted declassified, archival material from a website maintained
by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. These official sources were
complemented by hundreds of nongovernmental sources, including books, think
tank reports, journal articles, press reports, academic studies, international
conference agreements, reports on perceptions surveys and other field research,
and analytical reports by international and advocacy organizations.
The research team also benefitted from SIGAR’s access to material that
is not publicly available, including thousands of documents provided by
U.S. government agencies. The Department of State provided unclassified and
classified cables, internal memos and briefings, opinion analysis reports, and
planning and programmatic documents. DOD provided documents and answered
questions regarding anticorruption-related organizations the department
created or participated in. USAID provided internal planning and programmatic
documents, and answered questions regarding USAID anticorruption activities in
Afghanistan. Researchers also reviewed hundreds of documents obtained from
the U.S. Army Center of Military History. A body of classified material, including
U.S. embassy cables and intelligence reports, provided helpful context. As an
unclassified document, however, this report makes no use of such material. In one
case, however, at SIGAR’s request, the State Department declassified a cable from
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