Pentagon redoes rule for 'mentors' - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Pentagon redoes rule for 'mentors'

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has weakened financial disclosure rules for highly paid retired generals and admirals who advise the military, documents show.

So-called senior mentors will not have to disclose their business ties or finances to the public, under a directive issued from Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn on July 8. That falls below what Defense Secretary Robert Gates initially called for on April 1 when he issued a new policy to restrict the mentors' pay and eliminate conflicts of interest.

Lynn's directive is not a change in policy, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in an e-mail. Whitman noted that Gates' rule says nothing about public financial disclosure.

However, the fact sheet that the Pentagon issued with Gates' policy in April states that mentors who work more than 60 days in a year and are paid more than $119,554 "must file a public financial disclosure report. Others file the confidential financial disclosure report."

The Pentagon based the change to private financial disclosures on advice from the Office of Government Ethics, Whitman said. The private disclosures will identify conflicts, he said.

The ethics office declined to comment.

Members of Congress say the change removes transparency and that legislation mandating public disclosure may be coming.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., urged the Pentagon to have the retired generals and admirals it hires as consultants publicly declare their business ties.

"Secretary Gates was exactly right when he initially indicated that public disclosures would be required for those mentors working over 60 days," Towns said. "Public financial disclosures are a cornerstone of ethical and transparent government. Given the important role that senior mentors play in providing critical advice on combat operations, it would be consistent with the goals of the ethics laws for these individuals to file public disclosures."

Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., chairman of a House defense acquisition reform panel, said public disclosure of retired officers' business ties is critical.

"We can't evaluate what they're doing without public disclosure," Andrews said.

House and Senate committees seeking to put the policy Gates proposed in April into federal law. Andrews said a new measure may be needed to compel public disclosures from mentors.

Gates ordered changes to the senior mentor program after a series of USA Today stories showed that retired officers are paid hundreds of dollars an hour to advise military services even as they were consulting for companies seeking to sell products to those same services. Because the retired officers are hired as contractors, few ethics rules applied.

The newspaper identified 158 retired officers who worked as mentors. Of those, 80 percent worked for defense companies doing business with the Pentagon.

They also collected pensions, some totaling more than $220,000.

Whitman noted that pay has been capped at $179,700 for mentors and a review of their finances has been instituted.

"We believe the department has put in appropriate safeguards for this program," he said.