Surrounded By Liars? – DoDs 2.41% Whistleblower Reprisal Substantiation Rate

Did You Know: The Department of Defense Inspector General only substantiated 2.41% of Whistleblower Reprisal complaints, according to the most recent study on this topic by the Congressional Research Service.

Here are some potential implications of this fact:

1. 97.29% of all Whistleblower Reprisal complaints that were investigated by the DoD IG were submitted by liars, or,
2. Current laws, policies, and processes to investigate and adjudicate these complaints are deeply flawed.
3. The seemingly absurdly low substantiation rate could perpetuate a DoD culture of Whistleblower Reprisal – “You won’t catch me!” – reinforced by a leadership culture of Moral Disengagement.
4. The 97.29% population of complainants will suffer from a credibility deficit, thus making them that much more vulnerable to leadership abuse.
5. The colleagues of the 97.29% complaint population will likely hesitate to make a Whistleblower Reprisal complaint given there is strong evidence their complaint will not be substantiated, and they will suffer from the follow-on credibility deficit.
6. Feelings of isolation and betrayal already felt by Whistleblowers who are being actively reprised against will increase, thus aggravating a likely already traumatized mental, emotional, and physical state.
7. The readiness of the Department of Defense to perform its mission on behalf of the Nation will suffer because the Department wittingly encourages a culture of silence and suppression of dissent.

The Department of Defense IG and Congress must do something to fix the culture of silence and suppression of dissent that exists in our military. This is a military culture that so often leads to catastrophic consequences for a country and its peoples. The Inspector General Act of 1978 charges the DoD IG, the HON Robert Storch, to provide recommendations to Congress for new laws and / or updates to existing laws to enable the mission accomplishment of his organization. A key recommendation HON Storch should make to Congress is to change the burden of proof from the current standard that the Whistleblower must prove they were reprised against to instead that the DoD must prove the Whistleblower was not reprised against. If these legal changes do not happen, low Whistleblower Reprisal substantiation rates will persist, and the readiness of our Department of Defense will suffer.

If you agree, contact your members in Congress HERE and HERE to make this argument.

Note: The Congressional Research Data does not account for the total number of Whistleblower Reprisal complaints received by the DoD IG during the reporting period; thus, we do not know the percentage of complaints that were not even investigated.

If you feel that you have been a victim of these types of concerns, feel free to reach out privately at francescagraham@walkthetalkfoundation.org.

PETITIONS:

1. SIGN THIS PETITION urging the Supreme Court of the United States to hear the case of Staff Sergeant Ryan Carter who was paralyzed from the chest down following a routine surgery at Walter Reed.
2. SIGN THIS PETITION demanding that our leaders in Congress change the DoD’s unjust administrative investigatory system.
3. SIGN THIS PETITION demanding real anti-harassment reform in the Military and Coast Guard now.

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Find Graphic Here: U.S. Intelligence Shuts Down Damning Report on Whistleblower Retaliation (thedailybeast.com)

LTC (Ret) Francesca Graham (Retired, Army – United States Military Academy), COO & Chief Advisor with the Walk the Talk Foundation, authored this article.