DOD Targets Revolving Door In an effort to slow the revolving door between the Defense Department and industry, DOD has adopted a rule requiring senior acquisition officials to get written approval from a government ethics officer before taking a job with a defense contractor. The interim rule, effective Jan. 15, follows a mandate from Congress. The job approval is required for any official who “participated personally and substantially in a DOD acquisition exceeding $10 million or who held a key acquisition position.” The DOD ethics officer will have the authority to set limits on what the former official can do on behalf of the contractor for the first two years after he leaves government. By law, former DOD acquisition officials may not work for defense contractors for one year after leaving government. “Very senior employees” are subject to a two-year restriction. Former DOD officials are permanently prohibited from representing contractors on matters that they worked on while in government. According to the Government Accountability Office, more than 86,000 former military and civilian DOD personnel were working for defense contractors in 2006. DOD also adopted an interim rule requiring online disclosure of the justifications and approval documents for contracts awarded without competition. The documents must be posted within two weeks on a government website that will be determined later.