Gates Orders Review of Conflict of Interest by Retired Senior Military MentorsJanuary 06, 2010

 

Durango Group, a Colorado-based firm that helps companies sell weapons and services to the Pentagon, is unusually positioned to do brisk business. The company employs the largest number of retired officers who get paid to help companies win Pentagon contracts. But some of these retirees—known as senior mentors—are also paid by the military to help organize and analyze war games, giving them access to classified strategies and weapons systems, according to an investigation conducted by USA Today. Of the 59 former officers who work for Durango, 15 also serve as so-called mentors for the military.

The connections go deeper still: Some of these retired (mostly Air Force) officers are also paid advisers and corporate directors for nearly two dozen companies, the USA Today investigation found. And, three of the retired officers work for private equity firms, and are charged with identifying, buying and running defense contracting companies.

These retired officers are not doing anything illegal, but many analysts believe that such overlapping duties should be questioned.

"That is an amazing conflict of interest," Craig Holman of the non-partisan watchdog group Public Citizen told USA Today. "They are working for two masters. Are they pursuing the public interest or are they pursuing the contractors' interests?... The conflict of interest law ought to be expanded to cover this."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered a high-level review of the military's senior mentor programs to determine whether mentors are overpaid or if their work poses a conflict of interest, according to the article. Durango associates act as mentors for space war games while also working for companies like Boeing, which sell products being tested at those games, according to the article.

USA Today recently reported that the military's senior mentor programs have grown significantly with little scrutiny or oversight from Pentagon leadership and none from Congress.