WASHINGTON, DC - According to Headline USA, a stunning Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft report shows that the Pentagon is actively embedding officers inside U.S. corporations and not necessarily for American taxpayers' benefit.
According to the report, the DoD’s Secretary of Defense Executive Fellows (SDEF) program places military officers inside major corporations. The program is designed to allow participating officers to learn how the companies work and then take that knowledge back to the military.
However, the Institute's report raises some concerns. It suggests that the program, instead of its intended purpose, may be contributing to corporate welfare and creating a "revolving door for careerists."
“Looking at a large sample of former SDEF fellows, we found that 43% have worked for a government contractor since leaving the program," wrote researcher Brett Heinz, who assisted in compiling the Quincy Institute report. That number indicates that SDEF participants work for large government contractors at over twice the rate of other Pentagon personnel.
“In some cases, fellows even go on to work for the exact same companies where they had been assigned, essentially using this government program as a launching pad for a lucrative career in the private sector,” Quincy reported.
Moreover, the analysis found that the SDEF program serves as a lobbying tool for U.S. corporations.
The report uncovers instances where fellows have made policy recommendations that could potentially favor the companies they work for, raising serious questions about conflicts of interest within the SDEF program.
“Fellows at companies who export billions in weapons each year called for the government to loosen arms trade recommendations,” the report read. “A fellow at a railroad company suggested that the DOD consider using railroads more, a fellow at a machinery rental company suggested the DOD rent more machinery, and a fellow at a private utility suggested the DOD continue buying energy from private utilities.”
One interesting revelation was the case of one fellow who recommended that the DOD modify its outsourcing rules and make it easier for the company he was assigned to work with the DOD. That company was Enron, the failed energy company that imploded due to dubious accounting practices. The collapse of Enron also cost the accounting firm Arthur Andersen its company. Those recommendations were made only six months before the company collapsed.
Heinz found the SDEF program has primarily benefitted corporate interests rather than American taxpayers.
“When given the opportunity, firms will push for policy reforms that have little to do with an effective defense strategy but everything to do with their bottom line,” Heinz said. “Allowing big businesses such a privileged opportunity to influence military policymakers serves to benefit shareholders and executives, not the American people.”
The Quincy Institute “is a transpartisan ‘action tank’ and communications project, established to challenge the decades-long obsession of U.S. foreign policy decision-makers with global military dominance and war.”
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