Implementation of the DOD Revolving Door Legislation

GAO discussed the Department of Defense's (DOD) implementation of revolving door legislation, which required former DOD employees to report their employment with and compensation from defense contractors. GAO found that: (1) only 30 percent of former DOD employees who were required to report actually reported their employment with DOD contractors; (2) about 5,800 of the 12,000 former DOD employees with security clearances worked for contractors with $10 million or more in defense contracts; (3) DOD interpretation of the reporting criteria resulted in a significant number of former employees being exempted from the requirements; (4) about 34 percent of the 200 post-1986 reports it reviewed did not meet additional DOD requirements; (5) DOD reinvestigated certain cases for possible conflicts of interest; (6) defense contractors were not uniformly reporting compensation to former DOD personnel, but about 85 percent of the companies complied with the requirements; (7) it was unable to assess the impact of prohibited employment because DOD inconsistently interpreted and implemented the requirements; and (8) DOD failure to properly apply the employment prohibition could result in more DOD procurement employees gaining post-DOD employment with defense contractors than Congress intended.