Defense Dept. Underscores "Revolving Door" Rules The Defense Department has issued new guidance on its “revolving door” rules, covering civilian employees who go to work for defense contractors. The new procedures follow the Oct. 1 confession by a former top Air Force acquisition official that she had given favorable treatment to the Boeing Co., where she later went to work. In an Oct. 25 memo, Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said high-ranking employees who are required to file financial disclosure statements must certify annually that they are aware of conflict of interest and ethics rules and that they have not violated those rules. He ordered DOD offices to include training on relevant federal and DOD disqualification and employment restrictions in their annual ethics briefings. And he said DOD offices must provide guidance on post-government employment restrictions as part of out-processing procedures for people who leave the government. The memo was obtained by the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington watchdog group that is critical of DOD’s ethics rules. POGO said the department is apparently “taking the revolving door slightly more seriously,” but added that the changes don’t go far enough. “Specifically, senior policy makers must be prevented from immediately going to work for a company that significantly benefited from their policy decisions while in the government,” said Scott Amey, general counsel of POGO. “Additionally, a person should not be able to skirt the intent of conflict of interest laws by going to work for a different division of the same company over which they had direct oversight.” The former Air Force official, Darleen Druyun, had negotiated aircraft contracts with Boeing, then went to work for its space and missile defense division after she retired in 2002. Druyun pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to violate conflict-of-interest laws because she discussed a future job with the company while she was still overseeing its contracts. She acknowledged giving the company favorable treatment on billions of dollars’ worth of contracts. Druyun was sentenced to nine months in prison. (SAA, 10/8) Her confession triggered a review of defense procurement policies as well as protests from companies that lost contracts to Boeing.