USAID’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) initiated an investigation based on information that a USAID staff member improperly emailed an unencrypted sensitive but unclassified (SBU) document to a nongovernment email.
The investigation determined that the staff member emailed one unencrypted SBU document and one unencrypted foreign government document to a non-government email address. The USAID staff member stated that they intended to send the emails to the recipient’s government email address but inadvertently sent them to the recipient’s non-government email address, which violated the Agency’s information technology (IT) policy.
OIG’s investigation found that the staff member knew the transmission of these unencrypted documents outside of approved systems violated IT policy. The staff member resigned from the Agency in 2025. Accordingly, OIG did not refer this investigation to USAID as no administrative action could be taken.
For more on USAID OIG’s investigative results, please visit https://oig.usaid.gov/our-work/investigations.
OIG reminds personnel and implementers to continue to report allegations of misconduct to OIG’s Hotline, consistent with their award requirements or other legal obligations.