The National Security Agency (NSA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) publicly released the Evaluation of NSA’s Implementation of Whistleblower Protection Provisions in Nondisclosure Agreements. The OIG performed this evaluation to determine if NSA has implemented required whistleblower protection provisions in NSA-developed nondisclosure policies, forms, and agreements.
The OIG found that although several offices across NSA manage and have responsibilities related to various nondisclosure agreements (NDAs), NSA does not have an overarching NDA policy. Further, NSA has not defined an NDA development process nor identified a central point of accountability to ensure whistleblower protection requirements are included in all NDAs.
The OIG made three recommendations to assist the Agency in addressing these issues. The actions planned by management meet the intent of all recommendations.