Former gov't watchdogs land in private sector

Two former federal watchdogs are now working for major defense contractors, the Project on Government Oversight reported this week.

Former Defense Contract Audit Agency Director Michael Thibault joined DynCorp International as its vice president of government finance and compliance last month, POGO reports.

Thibault spent the last two years as co-chairman of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, which concluded that as much as $60 billion in federal contract spending was wasted or lost over the past decade in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Also, Gordon Heddell, who resigned as the Pentagon’s Inspector General on Christmas Eve, was hired last month as a senior executive advisor with global consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, POGO reports.

“Unlike some revolving door situations, the hiring of Michael Thibault and Gordon Heddell seems based more on higher principle than on purely political or economic gain,” POGO investigator Neil Gordon wrote in the blog post. “We can only hope that the skills they developed as watchdogs and fighters of fraud, waste, and abuse will continue to serve the public interest.”