Is tampering or doctoring a signed official document crime?

[jhlee611]

I am a federal employee and my job includes producing official documents for G-15 and above. My agency has a number of subordinate agencies which have had tendencies of insubordination and defiance to the headquarters (my office.)

Last Tuesday I sent an official instruction to one of these subordinate agencies via e-mail (digitally signed) along with an electronic copy of instruction, and Wednesday my management and I were told by the second highest ranking official in my agency that my document showed unprofessionalism and sarcasm. My management and I were surprised and reviewed our original document, but we saw nothing unprofessional and sarcastic.

That second highest ranking official told us later that his counterpart complained about the document I produced and sent him a copy of what she had through fax. What we saw was a document with words "Blah Blah Blah" typed on the reproduced copy (not even the original eletronic version.)

I did my research on the matter and learned that US Code Title 18 has a secion covering tampering witnesses and documents in official proceedings. What other laws in the book can I refer?

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maryland

 

[swalsh411]

It's not an official proceeding. It's office politics or somebody's bad idea of a joke. Maybe somebody doesn't like you? It seems as though your manager knows you did not send this and it has obviously been tampered with so there should be no negative consequences for you. You can report it if you feel you must but it's neither your right nor responsibility to pursue criminal charges (if any laws have even been broken) against the person or persons who did the tampering. (if you could even find out who that was).

 

[jhlee611]

My agency call this type of document a tasker (a lawful order for immediate execution) - by the way I work for an agency that belongs to the Department of Defense. The signed order has an official document and any alteration or modification of the original order is illegal, as far as I know.

My agency has subordinate agencies which were forced into coming under my agancy. Believe it or not we spend more time on this petty politics than actual work for tax payers. It has been like this for last 10 years (I hear since I joined this organization last summer) and there is no sign of improving.

However, no one believed they actually tampered the document and handed the document to us as an evidence.

My supervisors know all these, but they are extremely reluctant to do anything even though they are taking craps from these people everyday!!!

 

[HighwayMan]

If you're so sure it's illegal why don't you just report it to the FBI or DCIS?

 

[swalsh411]

Perhaps the reason for your supervisors not taking any action is that, unlike you, they are knowledgeable about the situation and know that nothing would come of it.

This is not a case of egregiousness lawbreaking like selling secrets to terrorists. You've reported it to your supervisors. You've done your duty as a patriot and that should be the end of it for you. Last time I checked the job market was still pretty lousy and it's not a good time to be making waves.