Website Policies

Website Accessibility

The Office of the Inspector General, Department of Defense is committed to providing access to our website for all visitors with disabilities.

To meet this commitment, we comply with the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Section 508 (29 U.S.C. 794d), requiring that individuals with disabilities, who are federal employees or members of the public seeking information or services from us have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the information provided to federal employees or the public who are not individuals with disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on us.

All applets, plug-ins, or other applications required by DoD IG webpages that are not included on the specific page are found as links from this page. Most of these links are to non-government sources. DoD IG does not endorse any of these products; they are listed below for the convenience of our visitors. Address questions about the particular plug-in or file viewer to the respective vendor.

Adobe Acrobat

Use Adobe Acrobat to read Portable Document Format (PDF) files.

Adobe Flash Player

Files with this extension (SWF) require the Adobe Flash Player.

Microsoft Word

Microsoft offers file viewer and converter programs to enable those who do not have MS-Word or have another version of MS-Word to open and view MS-Word files.

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft offers file viewer and converter programs to enable those who do not have MS-Excel or have another version of MS-Excel to view MS-Excel files.

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft offers file viewer and converter programs to enable those who do not have MS-PowerPoint or have another version of MS-PowerPoint to view MS-PowerPoint files.

WinZip

Zip files are single files, sometimes called "archives", that contain one or more compressed files. Files with this extension (.zip) require the WinZip, to open and extract them.

Plain Language Policy

The Plain Writing Act of 2010 requires federal agencies to write "clear Government communication that the public can understand and use." President Obama also emphasized the importance of establishing "a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration" in his January 21, 2009, Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government.

The Office of the Inspector General, Department of Defense is committed to writing new documents in plain language by October 2011, using the Federal Plain Language Guidelines.

For more information on the federal government's efforts to improve communication with the public, visit PlainLanguage.gov.

We need your help to comply with this Act! Let us know if you have trouble understanding our documents or the pages on our website, please Contact Us.

Copyright Policy

Copyright Policy
Information and images posted by the Department of Defense on this website are made available to the public consistent with the DoD’s Principles of Information, http://www.defenselink.mil/admin/prininfo.html.  The appearance of information and images on publicly accessible DoD websites does not, in itself, warrant that the information or image is in the public domain.  All efforts are made to identify works that are protected by copyright.  However, DoD makes no representations or warranties of any kind regarding the suitability of DoD information and imagery for non-DoD purposes.  Military Service names, insignia, seals, symbols and similar marks are either registered or common law trademarks and may not be used in commerce without prior written permission.  Service Trademark Office contacts found at http://www.defense.gov/trademarks/

Commercial Use: Policy on use of still or motion imagery containing military personnel and equipment, regardless of its origin, for commercial advertisement, marketing, promotion or fundraising purposes is found at http://defenseimagery.mil/products.html

Except where noted as copyrighted, third-party content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Visitors to this website agree to grant a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to the rest of the world for their submissions to www.dodig.mil under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

DMCA Notice
The Office of Inspector General, Department of Defense respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask users of our Web sites to do the same. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other applicable law, we have adopted a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances and at our sole discretion, subscribers or account holders who are deemed to be repeat infringers. We may also at our sole discretion limit access to our Web site and/or terminate the accounts of any users who infringe any intellectual property rights of others, whether or not there is any repeat infringement.

Information Quality Guidelines

This site presents the Office of Inspector General, Department of Defense's Information Quality Guidelines, which were developed in accordance with Section 515, Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act (Public Law 106-554). The law directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue government-wide guidelines that "provide policy and procedural guidance to Federal Agencies for ensuring and maximizing the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information (including statistical information) disseminated by Federal Agencies." OMB published final guidance in Federal Register, February 22, 2002. 

According to the OMB guidelines, a basic standard of quality (objectivity, utility, and integrity) must be maintained and appropriate steps taken to incorporate information quality criteria into agency public information dissemination practices. After reviewing initial draft agency guidelines, OMB also issued supplementary guidance that considered important issues and approaches, and provided guidance on those provisions that applied uniformly to all agencies.

The OMB guidelines were implemented DoD-wide by Deputy Secretary of Defense Memorandum, February 10, 2003, and apply to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Military Departments, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Combatant Commands, Inspector General of the Department, Defense Agencies, DoD Field Activities, and all other organizational entities in DoD (hereafter referred to collectively as “DoD Components”).

Section I prescribes policy, guidelines and procedural guidance for DoD Components. It assigns responsibilities, establishes administrative mechanisms for affected persons to seek and obtain correction of information maintained and disseminated by DoD Components, and delineates public complaint reporting requirements. Section II defines terms and provides context and attributes of each term. Section III posts the Information Quality Act Annual Reports to OMB for 2003, 2004 and 2005.

DoD Components have implemented the guidance in Section I, as integral to their information resource management procedures. These guidelines apply to information disseminated by DoD on or after the date of the cited memorandum, regardless of when the information was first disseminated.

Security Protocols to Protect Information

Please see the DoD Instructions, Security and Policy Review of DoD Information for Public Release (DoDI 5230.29).

Web Publishing Schedule

Section 207(f)(2) of the E-Government Act of 2002 requires federal agencies to develop an inventory of information to be published on their websites, establish a schedule for publishing information, make those schedules available for public comment, and post the schedules and priorities on the website.

The Office of Inspector General, Department of Defense has a long-standing policy to publish information and reports as soon as they can be released to the public, so there is no more specific schedule for many of DoD IG’s releases. As new information becomes available that is important to the public, we are committed to putting it on our website.

Content Web Publishing Schedule
Reports (Audits, Inspections, Investigations, Assessments) Upon Release to Public
News (Information Releases, Testimony) Upon Release to Public
IG Monthly Update First Business Day of Each Month
Semiannual Report to Congress Semiannually
Job Postings Upon Release to Public