Federal Auditors Eye Relief Charity’s Staffing and Confidentiality Rules

Federal government auditors are examining stringent confidentiality agreements demanded of employees at a nonprofit agency that has received hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for humanitarian and development efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Washington Post writes.

Arlington, Va.-based International Relief and Development, the largest recipient of grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development, sought agreements stipulating that workers could be sued for disparaging the charity to “funding agencies” or “officials of any government.”

The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction is investigating whether the agreements violate whistle-blower protections, and USAID is looking into what its inspector general called a “revolving door” of employees between the charity and the government agency.

The Post reported earlier this week on questions about International Relief and Development’s spending and operations, which received little oversight from government bodies.