I've always wondered about skimming in scenarios like that.

There would be really no way, outside of a sting operation, to monitor an agent's use of cash to bribe the players in any operation like that.

If Rambo in Afghanistan is going to bribe Achmed to rat out his cousin MoMo, who would be the wiser if he kept $5k for himself? We throw a lot of money at locals to get info, or services, or assistance. Of course it's necessary because the American dollar reigns supreme the world over and we have a lot of them, but I've always been curious to see what - if any - safeguards are in place to check skimming or outright cash grabs with a bogus explanation.

For certain there's got to be a high incidence of a potential bribee disappearing after the briber handed over cold hard cash.