http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/washi … wanted=allThat contract, which Justice Department officials in Washington learned about only several weeks ago, has prompted an internal inquiry into the department’s procedures for selecting outside monitors to police settlements with large companies.
The contract between Mr. Ashcroft’s consulting firm, the Ashcroft Group, and Zimmer Holdings, a medical supply company in Indiana, has also drawn the attention of Congressional investigators.
The New Jersey prosecutor, United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie, directed similar monitoring contracts last year to two other former Justice Department colleagues from the Bush administration, as well as to a former Republican state attorney general in New Jersey.
Officials said that while there had been no accusations of wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Christie or Mr. Ashcroft, aides to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey were concerned about the appearance of favoritism....
The disclosure of the monitoring agreement, in which Mr. Ashcroft’s fees are paid directly by Zimmer, prompted Democratic lawmakers from New Jersey to question if the contract was new evidence of political favoritism in the Bush administration’s long-embattled Justice Department.
The article mentions Ashcroft and Christie were colleagues, but fails to mention that Christie actually worked directly for Ashcroft.
This article, while interesting in its own right, got me thinking about cronyism and life after politics for many former government officials. Many government officials (especially high-ranking) often turn to corporate work after "serving the public" (haha). There certainly is nothing wrong with former politicos joining the private workforce, but in practice it often leads to charges of favoritism and conflict of interest. In the private sector, when a prominent officer leaves a company, there is often a confidentiality or at the very least a non-competition agreement that is signed, limiting the employee's ability to profit from knowledge or relationships gained through employment. As far as I know, there is no such agreement for government officials. Why not?
Do you think some sort of agreement limiting an ex-employee of the government from profiting off relationships and/or otherwise non-disclosed knowledge would be beneficial to our society? Why or why not?
Last edited by KEN-JENNINGS (2008-01-11 18:42:25)