A former GSA contracting officer was sentenced to five years in prison for taking bribes from a security contractor.

Dessie Ruth Nelson, 65, who worked for GSA in Oakland, CA, pleaded guilty in January to accepting more than $100,000 and passage on a Caribbean cruise in exchange for her help in awarding security contracts to Holiday International Security of Silver Spring, MD.

The company’s former owner, Michael Holiday, is serving a four-year prison term.

Retired military officers are claiming an increasing share of high-level civilian jobs in the Defense Department, and career civilian employees don’t like it.

The newspaper Federal Times reported that retired officers now account for as much as 26% of DOD’s civilians in grades GS-14 and above, including the Senior Executive Service. A 1999 change in the law allows the retired officers to double-dip, collecting their full pensions on top of their government salaries.

Senior defense officials told the newspaper the ex-officers are generally better-educated and have more management experience than civilians competing for the same jobs. The military pays for many officers’ advanced degrees, and young officers begin commanding troops when they are in their early twenties.

“You have [retired] lieutenant colonels who have PhDs, and have spent 20 years in the military doing their jobs. Then you have a GS-15 with a master’s degree and who doesn’t have as much experience. Who do you pick?” one senior DOD executive said.

DOD plans to launch a new program next year to improve training, education and promotion opportunities for its career civilian workers.

Paul Denett announced he will resign as the Bush administration’s procurement policy chief in September. Denett, a career federal employee served two years as administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

He said another career civil servant, Lesley Field, will be acting administrator until a new president takes office.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization has named Computer Sciences Corp. its 2007 “large business of the year.”

CSC, of Falls Church, VA, met subcontracting goals for small business, small disadvantaged business and women-owned business. The company said it has mentor-protégé arrangements with seven companies through several agencies.

“CSC is committed to supporting disadvantaged businesses, increasing supplier diversity and broadening small business owners’ presence in the government marketplace,” said James Sheaffer, president of CSC’s North American Public Sector line of business.

CSC supports seven protégé companies under several agency programs, including the Defense Department, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Small Business Administration.