The Enforcers

Among the other key players to check for in your area are field officers for the Defense Criminal Investigative Service – - the Pentagon’s FBI. 

The Army Audit Agency, Navy Audit Service, Air Force Audit Agency and the criminal investigative branches of each service have offices near military installations. Get to known investigators in your area. Get interviews on public cases to get your foot in the door with investigators.

The Navy Audit Service, unlike the Army and Air Force counterparts, has a very transparent website that lists reports.

The Army and Air Force don’t list report titles, making you  use the Freedom of Information Act for titles or waiting until the prior six months are published by the Pentagon Inspector General’s Office in its semi-annual reports. That’s why meeting and cultivating regionally based auditors is key to finding out in a timely manner what reports are available.

Also handy is the DOD IG Master list of its publications contained on its website.

Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen puts out a quarterly report that contains the ongoing work of other agencies on Iraq fraud, waste and abuse, including the GAO, Pentagon IG and Army Audit Agency.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction Arnold Fields also publishes a quarterly report.  Check the section “Other Agency Oversight” to track ongoing State, AID, Defense and GAO reports as the U.S. military commitment there grows.

If your area is heavy with defense contractors see if the Defense Contract Management Agency, or DCMA, has a field office representative in a major defense facility. DCMA an FOIA reading room where it has posted monthly reports it’s released on the F-35 fighter program.