Gates tries to slow down the absurd "Senior Mentor" Program.. - New England Patriots Forums

***DarrylS*** · 04-07-2010, 05:02 AM

This has been going for a while now, a high ranking official retires from the military and then comes back the next day and is paid up to $440 per/hour to "mentor" the people he used to work with.. the gravy train of our military defense systems, aka the military industrial complex continues..

Here is a basic question, an officer ascends through the ranks through merit and knowledge, and then becomes a "Brigadeer General" and finally a "Four Star General".. hasn't that officer been essentially "metored" since joining the military???

There is a guy somewhere in the MBTA who made this much money somewhere.. so for some this will be minimized.. but for many this is another one of those slippery slopes of an "Appearance of Impropriety" (AKA conflict of interest) things as they are usually working for a defense contractor as well..

Gates orders overhaul of Pentagon mentor program - USATODAY.com

Quote:

Mentors collected up to $440 an hour in taxpayer dollars, many times their active-duty pay. They supplemented military pensions that range as high as $220,000. USA TODAY identified 158 mentors and found that 80% had ties to the defense industry.

The services declined to disclose many details about the programs, including how much was paid to each mentor. One Pentagon offshoot, the Missile Defense Agency, refused even to disclose the names of its mentors. And there was no way for the public to learn the extent of each mentor's financial affiliations with the defense industry.

Mentors will no longer be hired as contractors, the policy says. Instead, they will have to be hired individually as temporary government employees or "highly qualified experts."

That means they will have to disclose their business ties, and those disclosure forms would be available to the public and the news media for mentors who worked more than 60 days in a year and were paid more than $119,554.

More from the Fed Times..

Gates not afraid to lock horns with top generals - FederalTimes.com