Military ‘mentors’ shy from disclosure

It used to be a lucrative gig.

Retire with a high military rank and nice pension. Get a consulting job with a powerful defense contractor to pad the retirement income. Then join the military's "mentoring" program earning as much as $330 an hour to offer advice on war plans and weapons systems -- all without disclosing your ties to the defense contractor.

But in 2009, USA Today blew the whistle, revealing that 80 percent of the mentors had financial links to the defense industry, potentially calling into question the impartiality of the advice they were offering the Pentagon. The stories led Defense Secretary Robert Gates to overhaul the system, requiring mentors to divulge their sources of outside income and capping contracts.

The result?

In 2009 there were some 158 senior mentors -- retired admirals and generals -- employed by the Pentagon. With the new rules in place, that number has dropped to 20.

While this is no doubt a blow to the "mentoring" program, at least the public can now be assured that potential conflicts won't be tainting the advice these former officers provide. "I want to know the advice the Pentagon receives is not motivated by or influence by defense contractors," said Rep. Robert Andrews, a New Jersey Democrat who sits on the Armed Services Committee, told USA Today last week.

The bottom line: If potential mentors feel it's too onerous a requirement that they let the public in on their relationships with defense contractors, the taxpayers are better off without them.