Red flags

El Líbero, Thursday, July 4, 2019

Dear Director:

In November 2015, the General Internal Audit Council issued a document detailing warning signs, also known as red flags. These warning signs allow us to detect the possible occurrence of fraud, illicit activities, or actions that violate regulations and laws. Their application was intended for all government organizations, including the Armed Forces, and has been commonly applied in the private sector for many years.

I wonder if this guideline, which in its final section details all personal behaviors that could be considered suspicious, was known to Army personnel, and if so, why no one raised their hand or alerted others to spending behaviors that apparently did not align with the income levels of a government official? The act of alerting is known as ‘blowing the whistle,’ which apparently did not take place, and if it did, it was not effective.

It may be that this did not occur due to a failure of internal culture that does not promote such actions, or because it was considered normal, or both. I leave it to your discretion to decide what happened. I am of the opinion that it was the latter, as the Army is an organization highly focused on control, and the moment behaviors that now draw our attention ceased to be normal, which coincides with the change of administration in the Army in March 2018, the problem ended, a ‘new normal’ was established, and the noises we hear today are merely echoes of the past.

Richard Kouyoumdjian
Vice President, AthenaLab

Source: El Líbero