Army bypasses ethics code to hire senior mentors

Ken Dilanian, Tom Vanden Brook and Ray Locker of USA Today report that the Army circumvented its own ethics code to hire two former generals as contractors before the mandated yearlong "cooling off" period. The Army wanted to hire former generals John Vines and Dan McNeill as "senior mentors," but the mentorship program is run by defense contractor Northrup Grumman and federal ethics law prohibits newly retired senior employees from representing a company before their former agency for one year. The USA Today investigation also found that of the 158 retired generals and admirals identified as senior mentors, 80% had financial ties to defense contractors. These retired officers, when hired as contractors, are not subject to the ethics and disclosure rules that would apply if they were part-time federal employees.