The USAID Office of Inspector General (OIG) Hotline provides a mechanism for individuals and organizations to report fraud, waste, abuse (including sexual exploitation and abuse), and corruption related to programming, personnel, or operations for which OIG provides oversight. To better serve its mission, OIG is pleased to announce the release of a new online Hotline portal for receiving information from all sources. The portal, which replaces OIG’s legacy Hotline intake process, is accessible on the Fraud Awareness and Reporting page of OIG’s public-facing website and was created to promote greater efficiency and accountability in the Hotline’s intake process. The portal can also be accessed directly via this link. In conjunction with this release, the OIG is no longer receiving information via the Hotline email inbox ([email protected]). Additionally, the Hotline telephone numbers (1-800-230-6539 or 202-712-1023) are no longer supported. Submissions sent to the inbox will receive a response directing submitters to the new intake portal. Information may continue to be submitted via mail to:
U.S. Agency for International Development
Office of the Inspector General
PO Box 657
Washington, DC 20044-0657
As a reminder, consistent with their award agreements, organizations receiving USAID funding must report allegations of misconduct potentially impacting USAID-funded awards. Employees of these USAID-funded organizations may report allegations of misconduct impacting USAID awards directly to USAID OIG. Allegations of retaliation against employees or other staff for doing so may subject the organization to an investigation by USAID OIG for whistleblower reprisal. More information on whistleblower protections for federal, contractor and grantee employees can be found at https://oig.usaid.gov/node/20. The names of Individuals who transmit information through the portal will not be disclosed outside of OIG, absent consent, or unless deemed unavoidable by the OIG during the course of an investigation. NOTE: This does not apply to individuals (e.g., lawyers or compliance officers) transmitting mandatory disclosures on behalf of their organizations.
About the USAID OIG Portal
The Portal is intended to be an efficient way for awardees, their staff, and others to submit allegations to the OIG. The Portal automatically assigns an internal Hotline number, ensures that reports are immediately incorporated into a law enforcement system of record, and allows us to better protect complainants’ confidentiality and anonymity when requested.
The Portal allows for the submitter to identify themselves, which allows for more efficient follow-up, at which point only a name and email address is required. However, other fields are available for the submitter to provide additional information to the OIG. After the submitter provides their contact information, the Portal will ask for the subject of the complaint (i.e. the agency employee, organization, or individual believed to have engaged in misconduct). Again, only the first and last name field is required however, the submitter can note unknown or unavailable in those fields if that information cannot be disclosed. Additional fields are available if the submitter wishes to provide more information about the subject. Once the subject information has been entered, the submitter is then asked to provide a description of the allegation in an open text field. If the submitter has previously drafted an allegation description, they may copy and paste that directly into the field or include the prior draft as an attachment and note in the field “see attachment.” The allegation information section of the Portal provides fields for additional information if available to the submitter, but they are not required for final submission. If the submission is to supplement or provide additional information to a prior complaint, the submitter would note such in the open text field. After entering an allegation into Portal, the submitter will get a pop-up notification that their complaint has been submitted. The submitter can then take a screenshot or photo of the page for their records.
The OIG will continue to make improvements to the Portal and will provide updates to USAID and Awardees if/when changes are made. Please note, complaints made through the OIG portal do not satisfy other reporting requirements that an organization may have to USAID or other U.S. Federal agencies.
Questions regarding this notice may be directed to OIG Deputy General Counsel Jennifer Herrmann at [email protected].