Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announced last week the revamping of the Pentagon mentor program, which will prohibit senior mentors from divulging nonpublic information to outside entities, or representing another party before any part of the federal government on issues in which they participated personally while serving in their mentoring capacity.The new policy seeks to balance the need for Department of Defense to secure the specialized knowledge required for operational exercises with the need to hire such experts in a manner that promotes public trust and confidence, according to a senior mentors policy fact-sheet.
In this case, “senior mentor†refers to a retired flag, general or other military officer or senior retired civilian official who provides expert experience-based mentoring, teaching, training, advice, and recommendations to senior military officers, staffs and students as they participate in war games, warfighting courses, operational planning, operational exercises and decision-making exercises.
Taking effect over the next 90 days, the new policy states that all mentors will be hired as highly qualified experts (HQEs). Senior mentor will no longer be obtained though a contract or from a defense contractor; instead, individuals outside of the federal government who are leading authorities in a technical discipline or area of expertise needed by the government will be hired.
With this new policy comes ethical obligations for HQEs, including filing a financial disclosure report, which will be helpful in identifying potential financial conflicts of interest.
The new policy also includes restrictions: HQEs are also prohibited from divulging nonpublic information to outside entities, including private-sector employer who are defense contractor or seeks to do business with the DoD. Furthermore, HQEs are not allowed to represent another party before any part of the federal government on matters in which they participated personally and substantially while serving as HQEs.
In addition, senior HQEs, who serve 60 days or more during the year before terminating service, will also be subject to a one-year cooling-off period that restricts them from representing clients and other entities back to their former agency for one year.
