WASHINGTON - Hundreds of U.S. military and government officials routinely leave their posts for jobs with private contractors who deal with the government, a process that has eroded the lines between government and the private sector, according to report released by a watchdog group on Tuesday.
”There is a revolving door between the government and large private contractors where conflict of interest is the rule, not the exception,” said the report by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), a Washington-based group that monitors military expenditures.
”The revolving door has become such an accepted part of federal contracting in recent years that it is frequently difficult to determine where the government stops and the private sector begins,” adds the report, titled ”The Politics of Contracting”.
The document says that the current contracting system where current and former public servants use their positions for private gain means powerful private contractors can potentially rig the system in their favor.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0629-11.htm