Kudos to Representative Castle

With nearly $300 billion of federal tax dollars spent on private contractors at the Dept. Of  Defense (DoD) for 2006, we’ve got to tip our hats to Republican Congressman Mike Castle (DE) for his efforts to tackle cronyism and conflicts of interest in the defense sector.

On Aug. 3, 2007, Rep. Castle introduced the Defense Contracting Ethics Oversight Act of 2007 (H.R. 3383) which would require DoD contractors to set-up internal ethics compliance programs that include such things as hot-lines for personnel to report suspected improper conduct and in-house training.

The legislation gives the Pentagon Chief the power to suspend the contract or debar the contractor from further contracting, but is essentially asking the companies to conduct oversight of  themselves.

Yet, it takes a fair amount of outrage and courage for Rep. Castle to target defense contractors, when the industry is responsible for paying the salaries of many campaign staff and re-election  websites  –  $17 million invested in the 2006 cycle, according to Open Secrets.org.

Cronyism, or the appearance of cronyism, at the Pentagon has had enough attention that
earlier this year, even the Dept. Of Defense itself, joined by GSA and NASA, proposed changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to add language on improper business practices among contractors.

While Rep. Castle’s legislation actually tries to require contractors to have their own policies, the proposed additions to FAR just say that contractors  “should have a written code of ethics and business conduct.” [italics added]         

Rep. Castle’s legislation makes no mention of subcontracts, while FAR extends the rules to them, unless they perform the contract activities outside of US borders.

Whatever changes are made to FAR could be easily altered at any time, unlike Rep. Castle’s legislation if passed into law. However, no Senator has stepped up to co-sponsor Rep. Castle’s bill. But POGO hopes they do, and find ways to strengthen the bill, including penalties for violators.

-- Ingrid Drake