Study Finds Link Between Defense, Contractor Responsibilities : Many Leave Pentagon for Related Jobs

About a fourth of approximately 5,100 upper-level officials who quit the Defense Department in fiscal 1983 and 1984 to take jobs in private industry had made decisions that affected their private-sector employers, and about a fifth of them later worked on projects they had previously handled for the government, a General Accounting Office report said Saturday.

The study by the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, was released by two committee chairmen who want to pass legislation to tighten the limits on former military officers and civilian officials taking jobs with military contractors. Last March, the GAO found that many former Defense officials were not reporting military-related employment in the civilian sector, and it recommended corrective steps.

Sen. William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.), chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, sponsored a bill to slow this Pentagon “revolving door” that passed the Senate but became stalled in conference with the House last month. Roth said the two GAO reports show that “the potential for undue influence is serious, and should be addressed by the Pentagon.”

Standards in Doubt

“Although close ties with former associates do not necessarily constitute conflicts of interest, they certainly help blur standards for judging ethical behavior,” Roth said.

Rep. Gerry Sikorski (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Post Office and Civil Service investigations subcommittee, co-sponsored another “revolving door” amendment that also failed in conference. He said the GAO reports suggest that “former Pentagon officials are hired for their insider knowledge and for favors already rendered.”

A spokesman for the Pentagon said it would make no immediate comment on the report.

The GAO based its study on a sampling of 30,126 former officials who had held the rank of lieutenant colonel or commander or earned $35,000 a year or more in the Pentagon. All of them left for private employment between Oct. 1, 1982, and Sept. 30, 1984. The GAO determined that 6,058 of the group held industrial security clearances and sent about 730 of them detailed questionnaires, of which 658 were returned.

Margin of Error

Based on the responses, the GAO concluded that 5,755 members of the sampling actually worked for military contractors, but trimmed the figure to 5,136 to allow for the unreturned questionnaires.

“Based on our sample results,” Martin M. Federber, GAO associate director, wrote Roth and Sikorski, “we project that about 73% of the approximately 5,100 former DOD personnel had some degree of responsibility while with DOD (the Department of Defense) which they viewed as affecting defense contractors--40% of the 5,100 viewing their responsibilities as substantial. About 26% had such responsibilities for defense contractors for whom they subsequently worked.

“We further project that about 21% . . . worked on the same project or program for a defense contractor that they worked on while with DOD--over half spending more than 60% of their time on the project while with the defense contractor. . . .

“Finally . . . we project that about 82% . . . had continued work-related communications with DOD officials--45% with DOD officials with whom they had earlier worked.”