Federal Manager's Daily Report

Pentagon officials – especially those with decision-making authority in awarding contracts to military suppliers – should expect even keener scrutiny if they decide to leave the government to work for these companies. And those who already have done so should be alert, as well, to possible inquiries. The department’s inspector general reportedly is about to dig into a recent scandal involving at least one of its former officials and Boeing Co., a potential conflict of interest problem that could lead to criminal indictments.

Strict ethical laws and rules apply in these hiring cases and the IG’s intense interest is sure to cause waves. Initially, Boeing will be the focus. But scrutiny then almost assuredly will move on to other companies. There’s speculation that the IG will look at security clearances, hiring dates and specific programs that some former DoD officials were assigned to oversee. No one yet knows how far the probe will go.

Depending upon what the IG finds, as well as what congressional investigators also are looking at in this regard, ethics controls could be tightened further. Officials who are either looking for post-DoD work and/or are approached by defense suppliers for possible employment, need to make sure they understand restrictions on such job jumping. Government ethics rules, laws and interpretive decisions may be found on the Office of Government Ethics website at: http://www.usoge.gov/pages/laws_regs_fedreg_stats/laws_regs.html