DOD Revolving Door

In response to a congressional request, GAO obtained information on: (1) the extent to which former Department of Defense (DOD) personnel go to work for defense contractors on the same programs as they had worked on at DOD; (2) the extent to which the DOD-related responsibilities of former DOD personnel could have affected defense contractors; and (3) the extent of work-related communication between former DOD personnel and DOD.

Based on sample results from its questionnaire, GAO projected that: (1) about 73 percent of the approximately 5,100 former DOD personnel had some degree of responsibility while with DOD which they viewed as affecting defense contractors; (2) 40 percent viewed these responsibilities as substantial; (3) 26 percent had the same responsibilities for defense contractors for whom they subsequently worked; (4) 21 percent subsequently worked on the same project or program for a defense contractor that they had worked on for DOD, and over half of these spent more than 60 percent of their time on the project for the defense contractor; and (5) 82 percent had continued work-related communications with DOD officials, with 45 percent of them communicating with officials with whom they had previously worked.