A database used by the Pentagon to keep tabs on the revolving door has been declared “unreliable” by the Department of Defense Inspector General (OIG).
The depository holds records on post-government employment counseling that are only about 80 percent accurate, according to an OIG investigation.
Guidance for most Pentagon officials and former officials seeking defense contracting work was required by Congress in 2008. In Aug. 2011, the Pentagon mandated “DOD-wide use” of the “After Government Employment Advice Repository” (AGEAR) by the new year.
But on Monday, the OIG noted that one-third of the counseling records they examined had not even been initially processed through AGEAR
“In the sample of these 149 records, there were 100 AGEAR-processed cases and 49 non-AGEAR cases,” the OIG noted. It said 51 percent of the latter lacked “pertinent request information,” leading to an overall information deficiency rate of 18 percent.
The “unreliable” assessment seems to be something of a downgrade. In 2014, the OIG described AGEAR as offering “marginal value” to auditors.
The OIG also reported on Tuesday that the Pentagon had 903 AGEAR records on file as of June 30, 2015. Notably, the Defense Department organ that had the third-most active guidance records was the Office of the Secretary of Defense (173). It had more than the Air Force (43), but fewer than the Army (331) and the Navy (229).
One Defense Department organ is exempt from guidance record-keeping requirements under AGEAR: the National Security Agency.
