Pentagon to Release Names of Moneyed Mentors, Withhold Info about Potential Conflicts of Interest

USA Today recently published an update to their November 2009 investigation into retired military officers consulting for the Pentagon. At the time, the Defense Department (DoD) wouldn't release a full list of the mentors, but USA Today reporters Tom Vanden Brook, Ken Dilanian and Ray Locker identified 158 of them, and found that 80 percent had financial ties to defense contractors.

In response, Secretary Robert Gates announced an overhaul of the program to be headed by Deputy Secretary William Lynn—who famously was the first appointee to receive a waiver from President Obama's ethics standards. We're still waiting to hear back from the Pentagon as to whether Deputy Secretary Lynn's first year at the Pentagon was in compliance with ethics restrictions required by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In July, DoD reworked the program, a process that included revising ethics rules to identify conflicts, and last week Deputy Secretary Lynn announced that "in a step toward transparency" they would release the names and roles of the mentors. But apparently, publicly disclosing information regarding potential conflicts is too big of a leap for Pentagon-kind.

USA Today's editorial board appropriately took the Pentagon to task:

In April, Gates said he wanted to promote "public trust and confidence in the integrity" of Pentagon programs. Pay caps that aren't really caps and disclosures that aren't really public won't do it. Retired officers who want to work for taxpayers and make today's military better shouldn't balk at public scrutiny. And neither should the Pentagon. (Emphasis POGO's)

We've heard that the Pentagon is unlikely to change its position. But we'd urge them to reconsider, especially given that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) may soon require its grantees to make similar public disclosures about financial ties to industry. In outlining the reformed policy, Lynn notes that congressional oversight committees can review financial disclosure forms upon request. We hope that Congress—and especially Senators like Jim Webb (D-VA) who expressed concern about this program—will take the Pentagon up on this immediately and consider releasing financial disclosure forms to ensure that taxpayer funds for these mentors are not misplaced.

-- Mandy Smithberger

Comments

[The Toxic Reverend]

Death in medical blood substitute experiment
with out patient consent 1999 Associated Preess article
http://alturl.com/5wwy7

The 1995 FDA Waiver of patient consent to
medical experiments that enables the government
to use any American citizen as a guinea pig with out
their knowledge of consent

fda Waiver of Informed Consent Requirements in medical research http://alturl.com/dc4f9

BioEthics resources http://alturl.com/epjat #fringe

Project Bioshield Purposes Authorities PDF
http://alturl.com/qvzih
Bioshield Funding
http://alturl.com/j6dti
Conflicts
http://alturl.com/g9fh3

[Bryan Rahija]

Hi Jbloggs, thanks for your comment. The revolving door is definitely on our radar. We continue to pressure DoD to release information in its own revolving door database:

http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/letters/contract-oversight/co-tic-20090129.html

http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/letters/government-corruption/gc-rd-20090316.html

http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/alerts/government-corruption/gc-rd-20091120.html

Ensuring strict revolving door requirements has also been a focus of ours in other areas:

http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/alerts/natural-resources/nr-doi-20100624.html

http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/letters/natural-resources/nr-doi-20100629.html

http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/alerts/financial-oversight/fo-fra-20100517.html

http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/letters/financial-oversight/fo-fra-20100513-2.html

[Jbloggs]

Why doesn't pogo look into the revolving door that was supposed to be closed? Ellen Embrey finally caught the boot after her dismal tenure at DoD which included ensuring TBI, PTS and mental illness (i.e. suicide) went untreated and undected. Her track record was abysmal by any standard (she worked hard and was team player but failed to generate reuslts), yet joins the Cohen group as a lobbyist, sorry counselor, three months after her midnight exit. I am sure she is busy plying Skyline with incompentent contractors for projects that we do not need, cannot afford and just like during her tenure, do not work.