Posted on 03/15/2019 12:54:17 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Washington— Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan appears to have violated ethics rules by promoting Boeing in the scope of his official duties at the Department of Defense (DOD) and disparaging the company’s competitors to his subordinates, according to a complaint filed today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington with the DOD’s Office of Inspector General. Before joining DOD, Shanahan worked at Boeing for more than 30 years where he directly oversaw military contract programs including Boeing Missile Defense Systems and Boeing Rotorcraft Systems, as well as commercial production including the 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner.
According to news reports, Shanahan promoted Boeing in discussions at the Pentagon about government contracts, saying that Boeing would have performed better than its competitor Lockheed Martin had it been awarded a DOD fighter jet contract. It was also reported that Shanahan prodded DOD to increase funding for Boeing-produced fighter jets in next year’s budget despite the Air Force’s preference for an aircraft produced by Lockheed Martin.
“It is extremely disturbing that Acting Secretary Shanahan appears to be using his public office for Boeing’s private gain,” said CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder. “Ethics rules make clear that government employees cannot abuse their offices to promote a private company, much less work on official matters involving their former employer.”
Shanahan is the first person to lead the DOD in about 70 years with virtually no government or policy experience. Since Shanahan’s arrival at DOD, Boeing has been particularly successful in winning government contracts, including multiple multibillion-dollar contracts for major aircraft programs. In early 2019, Boeing shares increased in value by 6.2 percent after the company beat quarterly earnings expectations and posted annual revenue of more than $100 billion for the first time ever.
“We don’t know whether Shanahan had direct involvement in decisions affecting Boeing, but even the appearance of bias raises serious concerns and potential ethics violations,” Bookbinder said. “It is imperative that the Office of Inspector General fully investigate Shanahan’s conduct.”
Yeah, because Boeing has had a really bad reputation for several decades, it’s completely out of the mainstream to suggest they may have done a good job on something. Morons
Lets see...you have Boeing and Lockheed-Grumman.
Ok - who promoted Amazon, Google and Facebook support during Obama’s tenure and why doesn’t CREW (a leftist org) go after them?
It hasn't been 70 years since McNamara was SecDef.
Unless you count McNamara's time in the Army Air Corps during WWII.
I’ve been following this story, the real problem here is anti-Lockheed bias by the acting-SecDef that is becoming a real problem. It’s ethically risky to be talking up a particular company. Openly ripping on a contractor publicly is playing with fire. A govt. official who has a direct bearing on the govt. acquisition process showing bias for or against a particular aerospace company can (and probably will) cause some pretty serious legal problems for himself and his agency.
I work in aerospace, so I know that Shanahan has definitely been causing some ripples across the industry. He’d better learn to shut his pie-hole before he really gets in trouble. Lockheed already has enough ammo to take legal action if they want to, Shanahan has demonstrated unwarranted command influence on govt. contracts. Whether he knows it or not, he’s putting out word that if acquisition officals and contracting officers want to keep their careers intact, they’d better be a Boeing guy and stay away from Lockheed. That’s not too bright.
You have Boeing (which absorbed McDonnell Douglas and now builds the F-15 and F/A-18,) Lockheed-Martin (Which built the F-22 and is building the F-35), and Northrop-Grumman (which built the B-1 and is building the B-21.)
Oops, Northrop-Grumman built the B-2, not the B-1.
I actually agree with them on this complaint but looking through their press-releases, they are a leftist organization. They like popping off legal complaints against officials in the current administration. They’re all about ethics, so why are there no complaints about Pelosi’s contracting scams with her husband’s company or her influence peddling schemes. And yes, they sure aren’t concerned about Google, Amazon, and Facebook officials being camped out in Obama’s office and the offices of Democrap congressmen.
McNamara. Grrrrrrr….
Boeing’s up against it right now, and deservedly so. But I believe they can come back. I really like the Airbus A-321 a lot too. So, no sour grapes.
Next Gens. We’ll see.
Sharyl Attkisson's book "The Smear" describes CREW as one of the tentacles of David Brock's blood sucking leftist swamp octopus.
I believe pencil neck Sciff has hired an ambulance chasing alumni of CREW for his committee. FWIW.
Did they file an Ethics Complaint over Hillary and Uranium One??
This story proves that a stopped clock is right twice a day. I have no doubt that you and Sharyl Attkisson are right but in this case, a formal complaint is warranted. Shanahan is a total idiot that has no idea, even when told, that his big mouth is already causing legal problems for his agency and it’s going to wind up getting him prosecuted. He thinks he’s still running Boeing, who can arbitrarily choose vendors and partnerships at-whim and terminate agreements because their wives don’t get along or because he doesn’t like treehuggers or whatever. In government, you can’t do that. You’re spending public money so there’s always a ton of justification and great pain to show that you’re spending money fairly. They’ve got to get this guy out of there before he starts sinking major acquisition programs.
I would hope that Shanahan is completely divested of any interest or investments in Boeing. Even going back to work for them after his DOD stint would be a huge ethical problem.
As for the complaint, the specific case of him pushing for the F-15X over the F-35A could be viewed as a strategic move, with the 15X acting as a force multiplier with the F-22/F35. Occasionally, SECDEF's disagree with the brass. Lots of brass disagreed with Rumsfeld during GW1, and in hindsight his strategy was brilliant.
There's certainly enough smoke here for an IG investigation. If one is initiated, I wouldn't be surprised to see him quietly resign.
Purposely put in all-caps, so CREW could make you think a flight crew was complaining.
And Shanahan is out, no surprise here. The cover story is that some kind of domestic violence from a messy divorce is why he’s out. BS, that’s already known and didn’t affect his security clearance. Shanahan’s blatant conflicts of interest that have caused major self-inflicted legal problem are why he’s out. The government has really tried to tamp that down with investigations “proving” that there was no wrongdoing. Whatever. Shanahan is such an idiot that he gave Lockheed, the company that he clearly hates, a ton of ammo to protest every time they don’t get a contract award. That’s not too bright.
Yep, the “cover story” was well known, and he was not the bad guy at all. His ex was a train wreck. Sounds like the investigation into his Boeing favoritism was going to uncover some problems for him. If he were smarter, he would have recused himself from such decisions, and would now be SECDEF. I wonder if he has a job waiting for him at Boeing?
I’m sure he’ll go on vacation for 6 months and surface at Raytheon or some other aerospace company.
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