Insourcing raises new ethics questions
Defense Department ethics officials are warning that conflicts of interest may arise when former contractors to work side-by-side with their former colleagues.
Defense Department ethics officers are warning officials about conflicts of interest that could soon follow when the officials hire contractors as employees through insourcing.
“The problem is they are often being hired to perform duties related to their former contract employers,” the officers wrote June 7 in a newsletter updated regularly by DOD’s Standards of Conduct Office.
The new DOD employees likely will oversee support contractor employees, evaluate contract’s performance, or issue task orders on their former employer’s contract, the ethics officials wrote.
“This raises conflict-of-interest concerns,” they wrote.
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Washington Technology June 2010 issue
DOD and civilian agencies are planning to build up their in-house skills in numerous areas, including their acquisition expertise, through insourcing. Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn said June 4 that DOD will save money by adding more people to its payroll. He also said he expects DOD to become a better buyer as a result of insourcing more acquisition expertise into its workforce.
“So I think that those people are going to be an investment. And we’ll get a many-fold return on their expertise,” he said.