Rogers Joseph O’Donnell – Contractors who hire former government employees may create an actual or apparent conflict of interest that could result in disqualification from a competitive procurement. If a potential offeror learns that one of their competitors has hired a former government employee, the potential offeror could file a protest to allege that the competitor has a disqualifying conflict of interest. Bid protest decisions from GAO and COFC address conflicts of interest arising from the hiring of former government employees. RJO shareholder Stephen L. Bacon recently discussed the takeaways from these decisions in Contract Management Magazine.
In recruiting a former government employee, ask for a letter they likely have received from their government agency’s Office of General Council that provides an opinion describing restrictions they must follow in subsequent work with entities seeking contracts with their former agency. The risk of an organizational conflict of interest arises if the former employee had access or was in the position to access non-public, competitively useful information. To mitigate a risk of an actual or potential organizational conflict of interest, a mitigation plan should be put in place that firewalls the former government employee from any involvement in the proposal development process.
