Scientists and their organizations have an obligation to identify and mitigate conflicts of interest. If scientists are receiving funding off the books without

Scientists and their organizations have an obligation to identify and mitigate conflicts of interest. If scientists are receiving funding off the books without disclosing, they're either actively or "accidentally" preventing that. Further, they likely breached their ethics policy which is usually the part of their contract, employment agreement, etc ^ These apply regardless of the source. Now considering the source, you have to investigate if they disclosed or were asked to disclose information on the policies, studies, etc they came in contact with. Alternatively, did they adjust or were they asked to adjust their positions, policies, studies, etc that they were involved in? ^ Turns out those apply regardless of the source too. In the most charitable explanation, they were incredibly sloppy multiple times in multiple ways. In the worst explanation, they committed espionage and/or damaged the entire process. The answer is likely somewhere in between.