White House Grants Ethics Waiver to DOD Acquisition Chief

White House Grants Ethics Waiver to DOD Acquisition Chief

On Friday, the White House released a list of 10 administration officials who were granted ethics waivers. Among them is Ashton Carter, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. (See our separate story about the waiver granted for NASA Administrator Bolden).

The May 11 memo granting the waiver, signed by Jeh Charles Johnson, the Designated Agency Ethics Official, is available here. The memo concludes that Dr. Carter’s work for Textron, Inc. involved providing “strategic” advice except for one instance of providing “specific business advice” on the Sensor Fuzed Weapon. DOD production funding of that weapon ended in FY2007, according to the memo. Consequently, Mr. Johnson waived restrictions on Dr. Carter’s dealings with Textron that might have been applicable under paragraph 2 of the Ethics Pledge, and went further by saying that “while a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts may question your impartiality in matters relating to Textron, I have made a separate determination, pursuant to 5 C.F.R. 2635.502, that the Government’s interest in your ability to participate in these matters, given the critical responsibilities associated with your position as DoD’s chief acquisition official, outweighs the concern that a reasonable person may question the integrity of DoD’s programs and operations.”

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